Auguste Rodin takes on crack 3-year-olds in Irish Champion

Last year, Auguste Rodin was 3 when he won his fourth Group 1 race in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown Racecourse in Ireland. Auguste Rodin added a fifth top-level win in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita two months later in his next start.

On Saturday, Economics and Los Angeles, two exceptional 3-year-olds, start against older horses for the first time in the $1.37 million Irish Champion Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf.

They must beat Auguste Rodin, who lost in his last start when fifth in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on July 27 at Ascot.

The winner of the Irish Champion Stakes receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Turf on Nov. 2 at Del Mar. Auguste Rodin secured a berth with a win in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in Britain in June.

Economics, trained in England by William Haggas for owner Isa Salman bin Khalifa, is unbeaten in three starts this year and will have his Group 1 debut in the Irish Champion Stakes.

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Economics won the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York in May and was held out of the Group 1 English Derby in June. Economics won his comeback in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano for 3-year-olds at 1 1/4 miles at Deauville, France, on Aug. 15.

Los Angeles, who like Auguste Rodin is trained in Ireland by Aidan O’Brien, won the Group 1 Irish Derby in June and the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at 1 1/2 miles on Aug. 21 at York.

There are two other races with immediate Breeders’ Cup implications on the Leopardstown program.

Porta Fortuna, who has won consecutive Group 1 races at a mile at Royal Ascot and Newmarket since mid-June, leads a field of 10 in the Group 1 Matron Stakes for fillies and mares at a mile. The winner of the $441,500 Matron receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 2.

Last November, Porta Fortuna was second in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita for trainer Donnacha O’Brian, Aidan O’Brien’s son.

In the Group 2 Juvenile Stakes for 2-year-olds at a mile, the exceptionally bred Delacroix will have his stakes debut after a maiden race win in his second start at The Curragh on Aug. 10 for Aidan O’Brien.

Delacroix, who has only three rivals in the Juvenile, is by Dubawi and out of Tepin, the champion turf female in the United States in 2015 and 2016.

The winner of the Juvenile receives a fees-paid berth to the BC Juvenile Turf on Nov. 1.

◗ Britain’s leading race on Saturday is the Group 1 English St. Leger for 3-year-old colts and fillies at about 1 13/16 miles at Doncaster. Aidan O’Brien has the two leading contenders in a disappointingly small field of six with the stakes winners Illinois and Jan Brueghel. Both are seeking the first Group 1 wins in the $820,100 St. Leger.

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