French triumph recalled 40 years on

Forty years ago this autumn the race now known as the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes was contested for the first time as the Joe McGrath Memorial Stakes.

Named in honour of the former revolutionary, politician and businessman who died in 1966 having made a major contribution to Irish racing, the 1m2f Leopardstown race for three-year-olds and upwards was a more prestigious affair than a previous Champion Stakes, run at the Curragh between 1946 and 1962. Worth £20,730 to the winner, it was the fifth most valuable race run in Ireland in 1976.

From the perspective of attracting runners from abroad, the timing of the new race did not seem ideal, coming just after the Arc and clashing with two long-established events catering for a similar type of horse in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Prix du Moulin. However, it proved an attractive target for connections of Malacate, the French-trained winner of the 1976 Irish Sweeps Derby.