Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-10-09
The 2026 edition has been run. Next: Irish Champions Festival 2027, Saturday 11 to Sunday 12 September 2027.
Irish Champions FestivalLooking for the current Irish Champions Festival?
Our live guide has 2026+ racetimes, TV coverage and runners as they're confirmed.
See the Irish Champions Festival live hubOr the full Irish Champions Festival festival guide — dates, venue, ticketsIrish Champions Festival 2026: results, day by day
The card is complete. Each day is written up below, above its full finishing order and starting prices, straight from the site's nightly results run.
The races the meeting builds towards:
- Irish Champion Stakes
- Matron Stakes
- Irish St Leger
- National Stakes
- Moyglare Stud Stakes
Before the off, the Irish Champions festival hub carries the dates, the feature races and the run-up coverage. Starting prices are industry SP; a provisional result is marked as such until the official return is in.
Responsible gambling: results are reported for information; nothing here is a tip. If you bet, stake only what you can afford to lose, set deposit limits and never chase. BeGambleAware.org. 18+.
Saturday 12 September: day 1
Leopardstown, Saturday 12 September 2026, on Good ground. Three Group 1s, and the biggest of them went to a 50/1 chance.
Hotazhell (50/1, Shane Foley, Jessica Harrington) won the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes by a nose from Wimbledon Hawkeye (33/1), with the 11/8 favourite Constitution River three-quarters of a length away in third of the eight runners. The race had been framed as a rematch of the Juddmonte International at York, and the first two home were a 50/1 and a 33/1 chance instead. It is the biggest win of Foley's career. Harrington's four-year-old son of Too Darn Hot had won a Group 1 over the same trip at Munich in July.
The Matron Stakes (Group 1, 1m) went the way the market expected. Blue Bolt (4/5 favourite, Colin Keane, Andrew Balding) beat City Of Memphis by two and a quarter lengths, with Fallen Angel, winner of this race last year, third.
The third Group 1 on the card, the Golden Fleece Stakes over 1m1f, went to Darkness Falls (Evens, Ryan Moore, Aidan O'Brien).
James Doyle rode a double, taking the Kilternan Stakes (Group 3) on Arabian Crown (11/1) for Charlie Appleby and the Solonaway Stakes (Group 2) on Quddwah (Evens) for the Crisfords. Colin Keane also had two, the Matron and the opening Ingabelle Stakes on Maire Rua (5/2). The Petingo Handicap over 1m5f went to a 25/1 outsider, Immutable, from 21 runners.
The finishing order and starting price of every race on the card are below.
Ballylinch Stud Irish EBF Ingabelle Stakes (Fillies' Listed)
Irish Stallion Farms EBF Sovereign Path Handicap (Premier Handicap)
HKJC World Pool Golden Fleece Stakes (Group 1)
World Pool Bet With The Tote Kilternan Stakes (Group 3)
Coolmore America 'Justify' Matron Stakes (Fillies' And Mares' Group 1)
TonyBet Solonaway Stakes (Group 2)
Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes (Group 1)
Irish Stallion Farms EBF Petingo Handicap (Premier Handicap)
World Pool Bet With Tote Autumn Fillies Handicap (Premier Handicap)
Results from the site's nightly results run for Saturday, 12 September 2026, source sporting_life. Starting prices are industry SP.
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Sunday 13 September: day 2
The Curragh, Sunday 13 September 2026. Ryan Moore rode four winners on the card, including three of the four Group 1s.
Scandinavia (4/11, Ryan Moore, Aidan O'Brien) won the Irish St Leger by two lengths, wearing down his own stablemate Queenstown, with Jan Brueghel third and Trustyourinstinct fourth. It was Scandinavia's eighth straight win and completed an Irish St Leger to go with the Doncaster running he won twelve months earlier.
Moore and O'Brien had already opened the card's pattern races with Sun Goddess (4/7), an easy winner of the Moyglare Stud Stakes from stablemate Green Empress, and closed it with Thundering On (5/4) in the Blandford Stakes from Lilt. The other Group 1, the Flying Five, went to Donnacha O'Brien's sprinter Comanche Brave (5/2) under Billy Loughnane, from American Affair. The National Stakes was the day's one upset: Folsom Blues (11/2) beat the 2/1 favourite Monogram, with both trained by Joseph O'Brien.
Our AI Lab tracked how the Silicon Tipster League read all four Group 1s before the off, and how each pick settled.
The finishing order and starting price of every race on the card are below.
Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Bold Lad Sprint Handicap (Premier Handicap)
Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes
Moyglare Stud Stakes (Fillies' Group 1)
BAR 1 Betting Flying Five Stakes (Group 1)
Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes (Group 1)
Comer Group International Irish St. Leger (Group 1)
Moyglare ''Jewels'' Blandford Stakes (Fillies' & Mares' Group 2)
Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Northfields Handicap (Premier Handicap)
Results from the site's nightly results run for Sunday, 13 September 2026, source sporting_life. Starting prices are industry SP.
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