THE QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on Saturday proved to be a magical contest for trainer Aidan O’Brien, who provided not just the winner Magical but second and third Magic Wand and Anthony Van Dyck.

Magical was achieving no more than she had done previously – she is long-established as a top-class and notably consistent filly – so an unexceptional overall time and 119 figure when sectionals have been allowed for, compared to her best of 123, is nothing to be bothered about. But this was a marginal personal best by Magic Wand (115 on sectionals) and confirmation from Anthony Van Dyck (118) that he is very smart indeed, for all that the Derby he won was slightly substandard. Deirdre (118 at Goodwood and 116 here on sectionals) shaped quite a bit better than the result.

There were also marginal new bests across the Irish Champions Weekend from Fairyland (116) in the Derrinstown Stud Flying Five at the Curragh, Iridessa (120) in the Coolmore ‘Fastnet Rock’ Matron Stakes at Leopardstown and Tarnawa (106) in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes at the Curragh, and confirmation of previously evident ability by Norway (113) in a Group 3 and Space Traveller (114) in the Group 2 Boomerang Stakes, both at Leopardstown.

All those winning figures are after overall times have been adjusted for the sectionals which gave rise to them, the sectionals derived personally. Those sectionals also underline how well-run, or otherwise, a race was, most easily expressed through the finishing speed as a percentage of the speed for the race overall.

Norway (102.8% finishing speed), Space Traveller (103.0%) and Iridessa (103.7%) ran their races close to par, Fairyland (105.4%) was faster in the closing stages than par, but not by much, while Magical (107.2%) and especially Tarnawa (115.4%) were sprinting at the end of races which had been steadily or slowly run earlier. Nonetheless, the ‘right’ horse won those races, as judged by sectionals, with the exception of the Blandford, in which Goddess (107) and Waitingfortheday (106) should have finished just ahead of/alongside Tarnawa according to the figures. The aforementioned Deirdre is rated second to Magical in the Irish Champion.

The same methods can be applied to the two-year-old winners over the two days of Irish Champions Weekend. Love was significantly slower overall than Pinatubo when winning the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh but managed to run the final three furlongs in exactly the same 33.69s time, with individual splits of 10.92s, 10.80s and, lastly, 11.97s by my reckoning. She is not slow, in other words, and this race tested speed more than stamina at seven furlongs, but Love’s 107 sectionally adjusted figure is respectable for a Moyglare winner, even though the form looks messy.

Daahyeh (105), So Wonderful (102) and Under The Stars (100) all get substantial upgrades also, but not enough to suggest for sure that they were unlucky. The win of Mogul in the Champion Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown on the Saturday takes a bit more unravelling. This race was run at an overly strong pace (winner’s finishing speed of 99.2%), if not hugely so, with those behind him – who included a thrice-raced maiden in third in Agitare – in a bit of a heap, and the overall time was over 3.0s slower than the two other mile races on the card.

I am not especially impressed, and have Mogul on 101 after this, with Sinawann on 99 and Agitare on 94, though the winner is undoubtedly heading the right way.