THE Longines Irish Champions Weekend is in its second year and already is making headlines with the quality of the racing over two days.

Looking back to this weekend a decade ago, it is worth noting the importance of the Leopardstown meeting which was staged on the Saturday, preceded by an evening meeting at Kilbeggan and followed by a Ladbrokes-sponsored National Hunt card at Killarney on the Sunday.

The day at Leopardstown was memorable for Aidan O’Brien as he saddled four winners, while across the water in Doncaster he teamed up with Frankie Dettori to win the St Leger with Scorpion.

Back to Leopardstown though and more than 12,000 people went through the turnstiles to watch two superb Group 1 races, though this figure was down about 1,500 from the previous year.

The feature was the €1 million Bailey’s Irish Champion Stakes and it was a member of the classic generation, Oratorio, who emerged victorious in the hands of Kieren Fallon, beating Motivator and Alexander Goldrun.

Ten went to post for the race and they included the winners of some €10 million up to that point, with the winners of no less than 14 Group 1 races among them.

Other notable contenders were Azamour and Grey Swallow. Oratorio came into the race with question marks, having been jarred when landing the Eclipse Stakes back in July.

Retiring to stud with winnings of more than £1 million, Oratorio stood for a number of seasons at Coolmore before being sold a couple of years ago to South Africa and he is currently at the Avontuur Stud there.

He is sire of a number of Group 1 winners, and these include the classic winner Biz The Nurse, the top-class Hong Kong runner Military Attack, the Dewhurst Stakes winner Beethoven and leading southern hemisphere runners Manawanui and Banchee.

O’Brien’s other winners at Leopardstown on the day were Briolette (a Sadler’s Wells half-sister to Pilsudski) in a fillies handicap, the subsequent The Irish Field St Leger winner Septimus on his debut in a two-year-old maiden, and Dylan Thomas who won the €200,000 Irish Breeders Foal Levy Stakes.

The latter colt went on to win the Irish Derby the following year, followed as a four-year-old by victories in the Tattersalls Millions Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

At stud he is the sire of six Group 1 winners, with this year’s Coronation Cup winner Pether’s Moon, leading Italian runner and classic winner Dylan Mouth and top Hong Kong performer Blazing Speed among them.