Addeybb to run once before Champion repeat bid - but not at Leopardstown

Four-time Group 1 winner Addeybb will run once before bidding for back-to-back Qipco Champion Stakes wins at Ascot next month, but will not take on St Mark’s Basilica, Tarnawa and Poetic Flare in next Saturday’s Irish Champion Stakes.

The William Haggas-trained seven-year-old, owned by Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, was as short as 10-1 for the €1 million contest at Leopardstown, won by British raiders in six of the last ten years.

Addeybb landed the Longines Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick for the second time in April and has been on a midsummer break since finishing second to St Mark’s Basilica in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July, a race in which third-placed Mishriff has boosted the form by winning the Juddmonte International at York last month.

Irish Champion Stakes entries

A ten-time winner from 18 starts with soft or heavy in the going description, Addeybb teed up his Champion Stakes success by winning the Listed Doonside Cup at Ayr last year and Haggas is leaving options open for his next start.

Haggas said: “He won’t be running in the Irish Champion Stakes. He's done himself rather well for a break so we're taking a bit longer to get fit than I anticipated but he's in good form. He will run once before the Champion Stakes but I don't know where yet.

“It's been hard because he doesn't enjoy training much on the all-weather. We've had no rain at all in Newmarket. He'll come into his own when it starts raining and we can train him on the grass. But at the moment that's a bit of a battle.”

William Haggas: hoping for some rain for AddeybbCredit: Edward Whitaker

Snow Fairy, The Fugue, Golden Horn and Roaring Lion are among the British-trained winners of the Irish Champion Stakes in the past decade, but there is unlikely to be much depth to this year’s travelling contingent. Mishriff and Wonderful Tonight are among the 33 remaining entries but have other big-race options.

St Mark’s Basilica heads the betting at a general 13-8, with last year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Tarnawa priced at 15-8 and Poetic Flare, completing a heavyweight trio, at 10-3.

Irish Champion Stakes

Paddy Power: 13-8 St Mark's Basilica, 15-8 Tarnawa, 10-3 Poetic Flare, 10 Mishriff, 14 Addeybb, 16 Love, 20 bar

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