Hotazhell produced one of the biggest shocks in the history of the Irish Champion Stakes 2026, holding on by a nose to deny Wimbledon Hawkeye and win the Group 1 at Leopardstown on Saturday, 12 September 2026. Sent off at 50/1, Jessica Harrington’s four-year-old got the better of a driving finish to beat odds-on favourite Constitution River into third.
The Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, worth €1,250,000 in total prize money, drew eight runners over the 1m2f (10 furlong) trip on good ground. Shane Foley sent Hotazhell to the front inside the final 200 metres and the winner needed every yard of that lead, holding off Christophe Soumillon on Wimbledon Hawkeye (33/1) by a nose. The official time was 2:02.53.
Constitution River, ridden by Ryan Moore for Aidan O’Brien and sent off the 11/8 favourite, could not sustain his effort in the closing stages and finished three-quarters of a length back in third. The four-year-old had arrived off the back of a close-up second to Item in the Juddmonte International at York, and trainer Aidan O’Brien suggested afterwards that the effort in that race had left its mark.
For Harrington, the win is a historic one. She becomes the first female trainer to have her name on the Irish Champion Stakes roll of honour, adding a race that had eluded her to a CV that already includes the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Champion Chase, the Champion Hurdle and Classic winners, and which makes her the most decorated female trainer in the sport’s history.
Harrington admitted she had been taken aback by the odds on offer. “I didn’t think he deserved to be 50-1, he’d won a Group One in Germany last time,” she said. She also described the finish itself: “Shane is very strong, but the horse is very tough. He knows where the winning post is and he put his head down on the line.” Watching from the stands, she wasn’t even sure her horse had got there: “I really didn’t know. I didn’t even hear it (the result) the first time because I was coming down out of the stands.”
Hotazhell’s route to Leopardstown had not been straightforward. After a difficult 2025 in which he went winless in seven starts following his 2024 Futurity Stakes success, he was third behind Purview in the Irish International Stakes at the Curragh, beaten a length and a half, before travelling to Germany and winning at Group 1 level there last time out. Harrington’s comments pointed to that as evidence the horse had simply needed quicker ground than he saw for much of last season.
Looking ahead, Harrington confirmed that Hotazhell will head to the Champion Stakes at Ascot before he is retired to stud. The Irish Champion Stakes also carries Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series “Win and You’re In” status, meaning Hotazhell has separately earned an automatic, fees-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland on 31 October. On the plans outlined by his trainer, though, Ascot and retirement look the more likely next chapter.
For Constitution River, the defeat leaves questions over how much the York race took out of him, and O’Brien will have to decide whether there is another big target left in his season after two runner-up efforts against the same generation of rivals.
Wimbledon Hawkeye’s runner-up finish for Soumillon at odds of 33/1 marked a big step forward, and the manner of the near-miss suggests he could have more big-race form in him before the season is out.
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