HORSES can and do come back for the Irish Champion Stakes from one year to the next; Dylan Thomas won in both 2006 and 2007, as did Magical in 2019 and 2020, though Azamour was unsuccessful in his second attempt in 2005, while Snow Fairy improved on her runner-up position in 2011 to win the following year.

One of the challenges facing punters for this year’s race is assessing the value of last year’s form as both the winner and second, Luxembourg and Onesto, are set to go again though interestingly neither is likely to be any near as short a price as the four horses mentioned above, which might come as a surprise given their ‘previous’ in the race.