Irish Legends: A Look Back at Champion Stakes Winners The Champion Stakes at Ascot is the centrepiece of the British Champions Day meeting at the Berkshire venue. The event was established in 1877, and it was originally held at Newmarket, where it remained for well over a century. It moved to Ascot in 2011 as the British Horseracing Authority sought to create Champions Day. It now serves as the middle-distance final of the British Champions Series, with well over £1million in prize money. Irish horses have enjoyed intermittent success, with just three winners this century. Here we recall past Irish winners of the Champion Stakes. Galvani (1907) Galvani was trained by Peter Gilpin at his base in Whiteleas near Kildare and ridden by Kerryman Bernard Dillon at Newmarket. A couple of years previous, Gilpin had his most notable winner, the filly Pretty Polly who won the Fillies' Triple Crown in 1904. Arctic Storm (1962) More than a half a century would go by before another Irish winner, this time Arctic Storm for John Oxx Snr. Arctic Storm was beaten by the French-trained Tambourine in a photo-finish in the Irish Derby, won the Champion Stakes in Newmarket in 1962 and was the champion European three-year-old of that year. Pieces of Eight (1966) The great Vincent O'Brien would land the Champion Stakes at Newmarket twice in three years in the mid-1960s, the only wins of his distinguished career. Lester Piggott was the man on board when Pieces Of Eight won the race in '66. It was to be the third of five career wins for the Long Fellow in the race. Sir Ivor (1968) Piggott's fourth win soon followed, this time on Sir Ivor for the Master of Ballydoyle just two years later. The Newmarket win completed a splendid season on UK and Irish soil that witnessed wins in the 2000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby, and he'd also cap the year off by winning in America. Hurry Harriet (1973) Paddy Mullins, father of racing's current doyen, Willie, counted the Champion Stakes on his list of big-race wins following the success of Hurry Harriet in 1973. Jean Cruguet was the man in the saddle for the win. Mullins would land an Irish Classic three decades later with Vintage Tipple in the Irish Oaks, while he is of course famed as the trainer of the mighty mare Dawn Run — a true superstar over jumps in the 1980s. Cairn Rouge (1980) Cairn Rouge was a top-class three-year-old filly for trainer Michael Cunningham in 1980. She won the Irish 1000 Guineas and the Coronation Stakes against horses of her own age and sex, before landing at Newmarket to take on the boys in the Champion Stakes and scooping the prize under Tony Murray. She never won another race afterwards, but was a close fourth in the 1981 running of this race. New Approach (2008) Nearly three decades went by before another Irish winner in the Champion Stakes. New Approach, second in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket that spring and winner of the Epsom Derby in June, followed his Irish Champion Stakes win at Leopardstown with a six-length romp at Newmarket under Kevin Manning for trainer Jim Bolger. Fascinating Rock (2015) Trainer Dermot Weld added this prize to an extensive CV in 2015 as Fascinating Rock came from the rear and finished best of all under the late, great Pat Smullen to win from Found and Jack Hobbs. The race was now of course moved to Ascot, it was to prove the only one of Fascinating Rock's eight career wins achieved outside of Ireland. Magical (2019) Somewhat surprisingly, Aidan O'Brien has only tasted one success in this race, that coming in 2015 when Magical capped a wonderfully consistent season by scoring from Addeybb in the hands of the trainer's son, Donnacha. Like New Approach, Magical had won the Irish Champion Stakes the previous month — and also taken in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in between. She had nine runs that season, all at Group-race level, with five wins and four seconds alongside finishing fifth in the Arc.
