It will take a special horse to end Aidan O’Brien’s stranglehold on the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, but Tom Marquand is “extremely excited” to partner the imposing Economics when he faces the acid test of his credentials on Saturday.
William Haggas’s Night Of Thunder colt confirmed the promise of his dazzling Dante Stakes with a polished performance in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville.
Economics now takes the leap into both deep waters and enemy territory for the Leopardstown feature, with big-race pilot Marquand relishing what will be the toughest assignment of his mount’s career so far.
Marquand said: “I’m extremely excited, this has been the plan for a little while. France was obviously going to be the deciding factor if this stayed the plan or changed, but he won very well in Deauville and looked as good as we were all hoping he would be.
“I felt he was a lot more mature and he felt more effective in his stride. When he was motoring up to the line he was still extending, whereas at York once he got into top gear he was having a little wobble around and was quite immature still.
“Hopefully he will have taken another step forward from France, which I think he will have done, and there’s not much else to say other than it’s exciting and given us all something great to look forward to.”
He went on: “I’ve been lucky to ride some really good horses, but most of the good horses I have come across have been older horses where there is a general hole for those middle-distance types.
“For potential, though, he is the most exciting horse I have been involved with. We’re coming to the end of his three-year-old campaign and we still don’t really know what he is, which is the exciting bit.”
This venture to Dublin is leg one of an ambitious Champion Stakes double Economics is seeking this autumn, with the Somerville Lodge runner also slated to run at Ascot on Qipco British Champions Day.
Aidan O’Brien has won this a record 12 times and the master of Ballydoyle saddles half the field as he seeks to extend his winning run to six straight years.
His two most recent winners, Luxembourg and Auguste Rodin, take part once again, and are joined by Irish Derby winner Los Angeles and Hans Andersen.
On Los Angeles, O’Brien said: “It will be interesting. He’s won around Leopardstown and it was soft ground when he won, but he’s a deceiving horse as he’s lazy and when he gets the front he doesn’t do much, so it’s just hard to assess him.
“For us, we’ll learn a lot about him in this race because there’ll be a strong, even pace and we will learn what kind of middle-distance type horse he’s going to be.”
Auguste Rodin bounced back from King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes disappointment when outbattling Luxembourg 12 months ago and O’Brien is backing the defending champion to return to his very best after hitting another bump in the road at Ascot in late July.
“He’s one of those horses who just about gets a mile and a half, but over a mile and a quarter he has loads of class,” O’Brien told Betfred TV.
“We’ve been very happy with him since Ascot, his work has been very good. He worked with a lot of zest the last day and we’re looking forward to seeing him run again.”
There is an international flavour to the contest provided by Japanese Arc hopeful Shin Emperor who will tune-up for Longchamp by trying to add another major overseas prize to his handler Yoshito Yahagi’s stellar CV.
Along with Economics, Clive Cox’s Ghostwriter and Karl Burke’s Royal Rhyme will form the British raiding party having finished third and sixth respectively behind City Of Troy in the Juddmonte International Stakes.
For Ghostwriter, that York third was the latest strong performance in an excellent campaign and despite yet to gain the victory his efforts have deserved, his reputation is yet to be diminished.
“He’s ran very consistently right from the very beginning of the season,” said Cox.
“He continues to please me at home, his well-being and mannerisms show he’s in excellent form with himself. He’s run admirably against City Of Troy throughout this season, especially in his last run at York.”
Watch Irish Champions weekend with RTÉ Sport. Coverage begins on Saturday from 1.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player and Sunday from 2.10pm.
