Magical’s QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes victory heads Aidan O’Brien’s Longines Irish Champions Weekend

O’Brien saddled four winners with Moore at the helm for three of those including the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes which was won by Magical.

Magical, second in three successive Group 1s before the race, did what was expected of her in justifying favouritism to secure her third top-level triumph.

O’Brien had been eight years searching for his eighth winner of the race, while he was also securing an eighth success for the filly. He did it in typically emphatic style, saddling the first three home in the €1.25 million affair, a feat he first achieved in 2007.

Positioned close to the pace set by stablemate Hunting Horn, the four-year-old was sent about her business early in the Leopardstown straight by Ryan Moore before quickening away decisively to prevail by two and a quarter lengths.

O’Brien managed a 1-2-3 in the process with Magic Wand and Anthony Van Dyck finishing in second and third respectively. Magic Wand kept on well for second, with the Investec Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck returning to something like his best form to hold on for third. The Japanese challenger Deirdre was unable to get a clear passage in the straight before finishing well for fourth.

That victory was the crowning jewel for both trainer and jockey with the roll of success starting in the day’s opener, Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes. Here it was Moore leading Blissful to victory by a nose, just getting the edge from Nurse Barbara in second and Pronouncement in third.

The double was completed in the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes (Group 2) as favourite Mogul enjoyed a comfortable victory in the mile contest. The winning margin of a length and a quarter from Sinawann was well deserved, with Agitare taking third.

O’Brien soon made it a treble with success in the next race, the Group 3 Paddy Power Betting Shop Stakes, thanks to joint favourite Norway. This time it was Seamie Heffernan in the saddle first past the line as the winner beat Joseph O’Brien’s Buckhurst – ridden by Wayne Lordan – by a length and a quarter. The winning trainer also had third and fourth with Emmet McNamara guiding Blenheim Palace to the second runner-up spot ahead of Moore on Mount Everest in fourth.

While A P then completed the four timer in the aforementioned Irish Champion Stakes that followed, both he and Moore had to settle for second best in the day’s other Group 1 contest that followed, the Coolmore “Fastnet Rock” Matron Stakes. Those plaudits went to Joseph O’Brien and jockey Lordan as Iridessa was a three-quarters of a length winner from Moore on AP’s Hermosa; the later coming in a head’s distance in front of another Aiden O’Brien horse, Just Wonderful in third. Favourite Laurens was a slight disappointment coming in two lengths further back in third.

The day’s other Group 2 contest, Clipper Logistics Boomerang Stakes, was a closely fought contest which eventually went to W J Lee’s Space Traveller. Richard Fahey was in the saddle as the winner came from last at the halfway point to run strongly in the closing stages to win by a neck from Matterhorn in second and Pincheck in third.

Sunday’s second and final day of the 2019 Longines Irish Champions Weekend moves to the home of Ireland’s classics, The Curragh, for the Comer Group International Irish St Leger Day. Four Group 1 races lead a nine-race card in a fitting season-finale at The Curragh, where the expected crowds can look forward to the final Irish Classic of the season in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger, plus the Moyglare Stud Stakes; the Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes and the Derrinstown Stud Flying Five Stakes.