DON’T forget, there will be a change to next year’s Irish Champions Festival, with another Group 1 on the schedule.

Leopardstown’s card is set to be given a boost by the KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes being raised to top-level status from its current Group 2 level, while the race will also increase from a mile to nine furlongs as part of the European Pattern Committee’s continued focus on the middle distance and staying horse.

You would have to hope that the extra furlong will have a positive impact on field sizes, though, because it’s hard to say this year’s renewal was worthy of elevating in class.

Yes, five-length winner Benvenuto Cellini was impressive and took full advantage of stablemate Montreal’s late withdrawal, but there were only four runners - each either trained by Aidan, Joseph or Donnacha O’Brien. The O’Briens were responsible for 11 of the 12 still entered at the five-day stage, and reportedly 31 of the 38 engaged at the previous entry point.

The topic of small fields in Ireland’s two-year-old blacktype races has been fleshed out in these pages already this season. As it stands, only two of the 22 stakes events for juveniles in Ireland during 2025 (the Listed Ingabelle Stakes and Group 3 Round Tower) delivered enough runners for each-way betting.

The roll of honour for the Champions Juvenile Stakes is impressive, and even Delacroix was beaten by Green Impact 12 months ago, but that was a four-runner renewal too. Likewise, a Group 1 race like the Criterium de Saint-Cloud (run over 10 furlongs, won by Tennessee Stud) also only had three runners last October.

More representation

When it comes to Ireland specifically, what would improve the shape of some of these juvenile events is greater representation from more yards in the country.

Of the 131 two-year-old runners in Irish blacktype races this year, Aidan O’Brien has saddled 32, Joseph O’Brien next best on 17 and Donnacha O’Brien has been represented by five. Additionally, nine British trainers have come over with a total of 11 runners in these races.

That means that 50% of all runners in Irish juvenile blacktype races were trained by one of the O’Briens, or in Britain. Flagging this is not a criticism of the O’Briens by any means - it is the opposite. They are supporting races in need of runners, even if at times their firepower can scare others away. Eve Johnson Houghton showed they can be taken on and beaten.

Firepower

Perhaps many other Irish trainers simply are lacking the necessary firepower to have a crack at these races, but it would be a boost to the fields if they could have more of a cut at listed and group level with their two-year-olds.

While it might just be the nature of how the season has unfolded, Jessica Harrington has had just two runners in Irish juvenile stakes races this term, Dermot Weld has run only one and Paddy Twomey has saddled none. Johnny Murtagh, currently third in the trainers’ standings and fresh from a sparkling Irish Champions Festival, has run five two-year-olds in Irish blacktype company.

Each trainer can only place their horses as they see fit, but it feels slightly unorthodox that those four leading trainers have had a combined total of eight runners in these races during the entire season so far.

With the major yearling sales on the horizon, seeing owners give backing to a broad base of Irish trainers across the board would surely only be of benefit to the entire blacktype scene for juveniles in 2026. Greater investment from owners in a range of Irish yards would help spice up the product.

After seeing four or five-runner fields in three of the last four renewals of the Leopardstown contest in question, we really could do with a healthier-looking turnout when it hits Group 1 status next year.

IF there’s one team who are consistently proving dangerous to underestimate without breaking the bank at the yearling sales, it’s the Eve Johnson Houghton yard.

Her unbeaten Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes winner Zavateri, bought alongside Highflyer Bloodstock, cost just 35,000gns in Book 2 of last year’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. That is far from the only excellent value they’ve snared in recent years.

Streets Of Gold, who won the €300,000 Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sale Stakes on this card in 2022, was extremely well-bought at £27,000. The same Havana Gold gelding won a £100,000 nursery at the York Ebor Festival and £100,000 British EBF Final that same season.

This year’s Windsor Castle Stakes winner from Royal Ascot, Havana Hurricane, was bought by Johnson Houghton and Highflyer for only 9,000gns at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale, while another winner of the race for the same stable, Chipotle, was a £10,000 snip at the Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale.

Even Jumby, her winner of the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes and Group 3 John Of Gaunt Stakes, has earned in excess of €300,000 in prize money. He cost 45,000gns in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Their winner of the €150,000 Bold Lad Handicap at this festival in 2017, Ice Age, was another 21,000gns yearling.

Working the sales can be a tedious and consuming role, but there’s no fluke about what Johnson Houghton and Highflyer are achieving together. Hats off to them.

LISTENING to some of the pre-race chat at the Curragh, you certainly got the sense there were some burnt fingers in the Moyglare Stud Stakes given the weight of confidence behind well-held favourite Composing (albeit the 11/2 winner, Precise, was nibbled at in the market).

Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned from this year’s renewal, however, as well as from the wider record of favourites in the race through the past decade.

Composing’s fourth-placed effort as even-money favourite now means that only one favourite has managed to win the Moyglare across the last 10 renewals. That successful market leader wasn’t exactly red hot in the betting either, 7/2 shot Skitter Scatter (2018).

What’s interesting to note when looking back at various editions of the race in that period is that what proved to be the clear standout filly in the field mightn’t have necessarily been the obvious choice heading into the race.

For example, 12 months ago, Bedtime Story looked by far the best of the Ballydoyle battalions. What transpired? The 4/5 favourite bombed out and Wayne Lordan claimed the spoils on an 11/2 shot… A last-time-out Group 3 winner by the name of Lake Victoria. While the market didn’t recognise it on the day, the fullness of time would show she was undoubtedly the top filly in the line-up.

A year earlier, Ylang Ylang trailed the field as 6/5 favourite, thought to be the best of the bunch beforehand. There was definitely value in the price of winner Fallen Angel at 9/2 - since a Group 1 winner at three and four - while 2024’s top-class three-year-old filly Porta Fortuna was sent off a 17/2 shot in third.

Tahiyra was 100/30 in 2022 when beating evens favourite Meditate (a rival who failed to win at three) and you can go back as far as 2015 winner Minding to find an example of a world-class filly landing the Moyglare at a juicy price. She was sent off 15/2 to beat 5/4 stablemate Ballydoyle that year.

In short, these potential mile and middle-distance fillies are often improving at vastly contrasting rates come the second half of their two-year-old season. Punters banking on a definitive order of supremacy, based on form established in the summer, could be asking for trouble at short prices in these particular Group 1s.