Almanzor was purchased for €100,000 at the 2014 Arqana August yearling sale by Jean-Claude Rouget for owner Ecurie Antonio Caro.
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It momentarily looked as though the consistent filly, ridden here by Frankie Dettori who was deputising for Seamie Heffernan, was going to see the colt off and gain a deserved win but Almanzor was firmly on top in the final yards, scoring by three-parts of a length.
With Minding in the feature event, Aidan O’Brien is represented by Falmouth Stakes victor Alice Springs in the Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes but she has been beaten three times this term by crack French filly Qemah.
“He doesn’t look very exhausted”. While her Coolmore-associated connections, of course, would like a win, those five straight runner-up finishes for the 4-year-old daughter of Galileo have come in five group I races, four against males.
Lemaire said: ‘The (winning) margin was not big but we went quite fast in the last 200m. We know how good he is but you never know when you go overseas for the first time.
“It was a great feeling”, said winning rider Soumillon. I’ve won on him a few times and I knew today he was going to run a great race.
“When I asked him to go he had a strong turn of foot. I was very confident, but when I saw Frankie coming on the inside, I knew he was going to give me a hard time for a couple of hundred meters because I know Found and she’s very strong as well”, Soumillon said.
The Irish Champion is a “Win and You’re In” for the G1 Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf, earning Almanzor an entry-fees paid berth to the November race at Santa Anita Park in California. “I said to Cristophe after Qemah [was beaten in the Matron]: relax, relax”, said Rouget. “I think the track at Deauville had been watered and was a bit inconsistent”.
“He looks not to be very exhausted after this race”.
“She was in the middle of the pack and she couldn’t finish like we hoped she would”.
“I thought this “Race of the Season” lived up to expectations with six or seven of the gilt-edged field coming to the closing stages with a big chance before the principals forged clear. We’ve got an edge back on him now”.
Almanzor saw his odds for European racing’s most prestigious middle-distance race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October, slashed from 16/1 to 5/1 – although it is two furlongs (400 metres) farther than he won over in the French Derby and on Saturday.
Racing PR Manager Michael Shinners said: “The Qipco Irish Champion Stakes was being billed as the best Flat race ever staged in Ireland and it certainly lived up to the billing”.
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Almanzor travelled like the good horse he clearly is before quickening down the outer under Soumillon to outpoint Dettori and Found.
