Hopes high for Group One Champions Weekend

Organisers of Champions Weekend are keeping everything crossed that the weather co-operates with Irish racing’s new €3.7 million industry shop window and allows projected attendance levels at Leopardstown and the Curragh to be met.

With Australia still on course to headline this weekend’s Group One extravaganza hopes remain high that crowds of up to 20,000 will flock to both of Ireland’s premier tracks. However, the possible impact of bad weather on potential attendances is an imponderable that will focus minds this week. Early indications though are positive with a largely dry week ahead forecast although it is more uncertain in terms of the weekend.

"Hopes are high we will have a nice day. There's certainly nothing there to tell us otherwise," said Leopardstown chief executive Pat Keogh who discovered in 2013 how bad weather can affect racecourses eager to attract paying customers. "We had bad weather last year when The Fugue won and the crowd was 8,600 . . . The weather is a big factor all right, but it does look to affect a smaller meeting more rather than a big Group One day . . . we're lucky here that we have plenty indoor facilities," said Keogh.

Leopardstown officials are aiming for an attendance of about

11,000 for Saturday's Qipco Irish Champion Stakes card which also features the Group One Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes. A crowd of up to eight thousand is being targeted by the Curragh for Sunday's triple Group One card headlined by the 100th running of the Palmerstown House Irish St Leger. The Champions Weekend programme has been heavily promoted in a €200,000 advertising campaign by the two tracks and Horse Racing Ireland. Tomorrow's vital five-day entry stage will provide significant signposts towards the final complexion of the entire weekend fields and although Australia remains a red-hot 1 to 3 favourite to win a fourth Group One of 2014 in the Champion Stakes, a significant cross-channel challenge still looks like travelling to Dublin to take him on.

Eclipse winner Mukhadram is likely to be joined by another Group One winner in Noble Mission while Western Hymn will represent John Gosden who will also be represented in Saturday's Doncaster St Leger, including with the Derby third, Romsdal. The entry stage also keeps open the possibility of late supplementary contenders. One trainer hoping the current good weather breaks is Dermot Weld who believes his hopes of a remarkable eighth Leger success with the unbeaten Forgotten Rules will be helped by some ease in the ground at HQ for the Moyglare-owned star.

Forgotten Rules is a 4 to 1 second favourite in some antepost lists behind the odds-on Leading Light, although the chances of a high-profile raider in Estimate, owned by Queen Elizabeth, look to be sliding with the 2013 Gold Cup winner more likely to run at Doncaster on Friday. The Curragh also has this country’s two top juvenile events, the Goffs National Stakes and Moyglare Stud Stakes. Aidan O’Brien has indicated his course maiden winner Found is to be added to the Moyglare field. Gleneagles, winner of the Futurity and the Tyros Stakes, looks like being the trainer’s top hope in the National.