Irish Champion Stakes: Date, venue, runners, history & more

The Irish Champion Stakes is the headline act on day one of the Irish Champions Festival, a two-day weekend meeting in mid-September that celebrates the stars of the Flat season.

The Irish Champion Stakes was rated sixth in the IFHA World's top 100 races in 2023 and is a prestigious Group 1 contest open to horses aged three-years-old and up.

The race was won in 2024 by Economics under Tom Marquand for William Haggas.

Irish Champion Stakes date

The 2025 Irish Champion Stakes will be run on Saturday 13th September 2025, with a scheduled off time of 15:20 BST.

Irish Champion Stakes venue

The Irish Champion Stakes takes place at Leopardstown Racecourse, which is situated just 8km south of Dublin city centre in Foxrock.

It is considered the premier dual-purpose racecourse in Ireland, joint-hosting the Champions Festival alongside the Curragh and also boasting major National Hunt meetings at Christmas and via the Dublin Racing Festival in February.

A wide, left-handed oval track of around a mile and three quarters, it is a galloping track with soft turns and a slight incline from the home turn to the winning post.

Irish Champion Stakes history

The event was established in 1976 and has been run as the Irish Champion Stakes since 1991. It is one of key Group 1 races in the second half of the season.

The winner gets an invitation to compete in the same year's Breeders' Cup Turf, while winners of this contest have gone on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the same season on five occasions and six Leopardstown scorers have subsequently added the British Champion Stakes in the same season on six occasions.

Irish Champion Stakes most successful trainer

Unsurprisingly, Aidan O'Brien holds that honour with 12 wins, including five in a row from 2019 onwards.

The Ballydoyle handler has won this race with Giant's Causeway (2000), High Chaparral (2003), Oratorio (2005), Dylan Thomas (2006, 2007), Cape Blanco (2010), So You Think (2011), Magical (2019, 2020), St Mark's Basilica (2021), Luxembourg (2022) and Auguste Rodin (2023).

Irish Champion Stakes most successful jockey

Mick Kinane has ridden more Irish Champion Stakes winners than anyone else, with seven victories. They came on board Carroll House (1989), Cezanne (1994), Pilsudski (1997), Giant's Causeway (2000), High Chaparral (2003), Azamour (2004) and the brilliant Sea the Stars (2009).

With four wins in the last six years taking his tally to five overall, Ryan Moore is the most successful active jockey in the race.

Irish Champion Stakes famous winners

Dylan Thomas and Magical are the only horses to win the race more than once, both being trained by Aidan O'Brien. His standout winners also include Giant's Causeway and Luxembourg, who won a thrilling renewal in 2022.

The magnificent Sea The Stars bagged this race during an unbeaten campaign in 2009, sandwiched in between victories in York's Juddmonte International and the Arc at Longchamp in a magnificent training performance from John Oxx.

John Gosden has been responsible for three of the last five UK-based scorers, including memorable wins for Golden Horn (2015) and Roaring Lion (2018).