Officials in charge of Longines Irish Champions Weekend are keeping fingers crossed that their “top target” Baaeed lines up at Leopardstown in a fortnight.
The world’s top-rated racehorse put up a breathtaking performance at York earlier this month to earn comparisons with two of the modern-day greats of the sport, his sire, Sea The Stars, and Frankel.
Initial comments immediately after that Juddmonte International performance suggested that Baaeed would bow out of racing in the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October.
However, trainer William Haggas has decided to keep his options open and not ruled out sending the superstar colt to the €1 million Irish Champion Stakes, sponsored for the first time by the Bahrain Turf Club.
Should Baaeed get a green light to travel to Ireland in two weeks he would be the star attraction of Champions Weekend, Irish flat racing’s showpiece event of the year which will welcome back unrestricted crowds for the first time since 2019.
“We’re hopeful but we know no more than anybody else. We are still talking to all the various UK yards and Baaeed is obviously very much a top target for the royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.
“I think it would be fantastic for the people of Ireland to be able to get to see what is a world-class horse,” Leopardstown’s chief executive, Tim Husbands, said on Friday.
“I think it would give us a great platform to get more international exposure for the race and the race meeting. It would give the Longines Irish Champions Weekend a real boost as we go forward.
“It’s great to have a new international sponsor and it would only help cement the genuineness of that relationship,” he added.
Baaeed has been made as short as 1-2 favourite in some ante-post lists for the most valuable contest of Champions Weekend. Also in the mix for the race is the French Derby and Eclipse winner Vadeni as well as Aidan O’Brien’s Group One winner Luxembourg who returned to action with a success in the Royal Whip at the Curragh last time out.
Baaeed, however, would be an unrivalled headline act should the Haggas team decide to travel.
Unbeaten in 10 career starts he earned an official rating of 135 with a stunning York defeat of Mishriff earlier this month.
That’s just a pound lower than his sire’s career high mark and the still progressive colt could ultimately threaten Frankel’s record 140 before his racing career ends in the autumn.
Baaeed has never raced in Ireland and the Irish Champion Stakes was the sole start made in this country by Sea The Stars during his record-breaking 2009 campaign.
An official crowd of just 9,000 watched that world champion live at Leopardstown, a statistic that helped create momentum for the Irish Champions Weekend concept that began in 2014.
Concentrating the best autumn prizes into just two days at Leopardstown and the Curragh has delivered mixed results in terms of attendance figures.
A total of 23,508 attended both fixtures in 2019, down from the initial 2014 dates which returned 24,168.
Leopardstown’s 2019 figure of 13,433 was the second lowest of the event there and the last two years have been disrupted due to the pandemic with a crowd limit of 4,000 in place in 2021.
Husbands is hopeful an appearance by a star attraction like Baaeed will provoke major public interest with pre-booking rates currently in line with 2019.
“We’re hopeful of getting a decent crowd and we want to put on a real show and people enjoy it and get to see an amazing horse on one of their last performances,” he said.
Leopardstown’s other Group One contest on September 10th, the Coolmore America Justify Matron Stakes, is plan A for another cross-channel star in Dreamloper.
This season’s Prix d’Ispahan winner has an alternative target in the Prix Du Moulin in Paris but trainer Ed Walker is keen to travel to Dublin.
“Dreamloper is in the Matron and we have her in the Moulin although the Matron is much more likely. The only reason we put her in the Moulin was the ground. We will keep an eye on the weather – we don’t want too much rain – but the Matron is really plan A,” he said.
The Nunthorpe Stakes winner Highfield Princess is also in the mix to line up in the Curragh’s Al Basti Flying Five over Champions Weekend.
“She might go to the Curragh. She’ll tell us, but we’re happy with her,” reported her trainer John Quinn. “We’ll see – there’s three full weeks from York to the Curragh and if we’re happy with her we’ll go to the Curragh.”
Earlier this season Quinn landed the Scurry Handicap at HQ with Mr Wagyu.
One star likely to miss Champions Weekend is the season’s top two-year-old Little Big Bear.
The spectacular Phoenix Stakes winner, who catapulted to the top of next year’s 2,000 Guineas on the back of his Curragh victory earlier this month, is a doubtful starter in the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes.
Aidan O’Brien reported on Friday that the son of No Nay Never hasn’t recovered from a foot injury and is unlikely to make the National Stakes back at HQ.
