RACING/Champion Stakes report: Azamour is set to try to complete a Champion Stakes double at Newmarket next month and while his jockey Michael Kinane already has a decent tally in that race, it cannot come close to the record sixth success he pulled off at Leopardstown on Saturday.
It's 15 years since the champion jockey first landed the Baileys Irish Champion, and that was at a Phoenix Park racecourse that doesn't exist any more.
It's Kinane's good fortune that he brings something of a midas touch to the best race this country has to offer.
Certainly there was a marvellous remorselessness to the way Azamour ran from last to first to pick off Norse Dancer by half a length with Powerscourt in third.
Rarely the most demonstrative of men, there was no doubting the pleasure the victory provided Kinane, whose last two Champion Stakes successes were on the Aidan O'Brien pair, High Chaparral and Giant's Causeway.
Asked to make comparisons between the "super six", Kinane simply grinned and replied: "I don't do politics anymore."
Azamour's owner, the Aga Khan, was teaming up with Oxx for a second Champion Stakes, after Timarida eight years ago, but this time he had to watch from 100s of feet up as his helicopter couldn't land in time.
However, yesterday's evidence suggests both he and Oxx have wasted little time getting their feet back on the ground.
Azamour lost a shoe in the race but trotted out soundly yesterday and Oxx indicated that the Champion at Newmarket will be his next race.
"Clearly a strongly run mile and a quarter is perfect and the Champion Stakes looks the obvious race for him," he said yesterday. "I don't think there is any harm in making it clear that it is highly unlikely he might go for the Arc, just in case people are thinking of backing him.
"He might get a mile and a half in the future, and it looks like he will stay in training at four, but the ground is a big issue with him.
"The Breeders' Cup Turf is a third option because a mile and a half on sharp track would be a different story but if he is to have one more race this year, Newmarket looks the obvious one," Oxx added.
The Arc is off the agenda for Doyen after the Godolphin colt's odds-on flop. Frankie Dettori was working at the three pole and he was beaten a furlong later.
Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford said: "He ran very flat which is disappointing. We'll see how he is over the next few days but I expect he is due a rest and will not run in the Arc."
The Longchamp showpiece in three weeks' time is the target for Grey Swallow who stayed on well in fourth and jockey Pat Smullen reported: "He's run a cracking race against very good horses. He could have done with easier ground and I'm really looking forward to the Arc."
There will be plenty looking forward to a possible third clash between Soviet Song and Attraction in the Sun Chariot Stakes after the pair provided a thriller in the Coolmore Matron Stakes.
Attraction looked to have flown the coop early in the straight after Yesterday failed to keep tabs on her as well as the Soviet Song team had hoped for. It was touch and go until the final 100 metres but John Murtagh got the favourite to the front for a half-length success.
Aidan O'Brien unveiled a possible Classic hope when Tiger Dance, a brother to the 2000 Irish Champion Stakes hero Giant's Causeway, easily won the maiden while his stable companion Acropolis won the Kilternan Stakes on his first three-year-old start.
