IRISH Champions weekend begins with a high-class card at Leopardstown on Saturday, where World Pool will be in operation for all nine races.
The feature is the Irish Champion Stakes (5.30pm), a race that is often considered one of the best middle-distance races on turf anywhere in the world.
The race has an international flavour to it, with Japan’s Shin Emperor set to line up once again, having finished third behind Economics last year.
That’s strong course and distance form, but he may just lack the sharpness of some of his rivals, having not been seen on the track since disappointing in the Dubai Sheema Classic in April.
Bar his blip in the Derby, Delacroix has had a fantastic season, winning twice over this course and distance before landing the Eclipse and finding only the excellent Ombudsman too good in the Juddmonte International at York last time.
Aidan O’Brien’s colt has plenty going for him, which includes receiving six pounds from his elders as a three-year-old, and he could be tough to beat.
However, at the prices I am willing to take a chance with seven-year-old ANMAAT, who should thrive in the softer conditions at the Dublin venue.
He won last season’s British Champion Stakes at Ascot on similar ground, beating Calandagan and other high-class rivals, and his two starts this season have shown he is still capable of mixing with the best.
He ran Los Angeles close in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in May and then found only Ombudsman too good in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, with both runs on ground that would have been quicker than optimal.
To get within two lengths of Ombudsman suggests there’s not much between him and favourite Delacroix, so the Owen Burrows runner could offer some value, and I’d rather side with him in World Pool’s Win and Place markets.
Big field handicaps at Leopardstown are always tricky contests to find the winner of, but my eye was drawn to AERONAUTIC in the Pertingo Handicap (6.05pm).
Joseph O’Brien’s four-year-old is a keen-going sort that tends to pull hard in his races, a trait that probably cost him victory at Goodwood last time.
He travelled almost too well at the Sussex track and hit the front a furlong out, only to be reeled in in the closing stages when beaten less than a length.
Had he settled better, he would have won that contest and presumably gone up a fair chunk in the weights, but he finds himself only a pound higher here.
If settling better, I can see him travelling strongly into contention and hopefully having too much for his rivals at the finish, so he’s another to support on a Win and Place line with World Pool.
POINTERS SATURDAY
Anmaat (Win and Place) 5.30pm Leopardstown
Aeronautic (Win and Place) 6.05pm Leopardstown