Blast From The Past: 1997 Irish Champion Stakes

The coming months will mark the end of an era when the remaining bloodstock belonging to Ballymacoll Stud will be dispersed at Tattersalls. The famous Ballymacoll colours of pale blue, yellow and white checked cap, have been carried by numerous home-bred Group 1 winners for more than fifty years, including Derby winners Troy and North Light, St Leger winners Sun Princess (who also won the Oaks) and Conduit, and 2000 Guineas winner Golan to name just British classic winners. Troy, Golan and Conduit all won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes as well, while Conduit and the filly Islington gave Ballymacoll some of its greatest overseas successes at Breeders’ Cups.

Another of the best horses ever bred at Ballymacoll (his dam was a daughter of Troy) was Pilsudski, trained, like most of the stud’s star names over the last three decades, by Sir Michael Stoute for Lord Weinstock, Ballymacoll’s owner until his death in 2002.

The first two wins of Pilsudski’s career came in handicaps as a three-year-old, but typically for a Stoute horse (and much of the Ballymacoll stock), he improved with age, particularly in the autumn of his four-year-old season when he finished second in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in between his first two victories at the top level in the Grosser Preis von Baden and the Breeders’ Cup Turf. But Pilsudski, described by his trainer as ‘one of the best-looking horses you’ll see…with an iron constitution’ matured into an even better five-year-old.

His ‘iron constitution’ was certainly tested that season but he put up a series of top-class efforts at ten and twelve furlongs in 1997 under his new jockey Mick Kinane, none better than in the Irish Champion Stakes. That summer, Pilsudski had already beaten the Derby winner Benny The Dip in the Eclipse and then finished second in the King George in what was billed as ‘the race of the decade’ won by Swain (Pilsudski’s Arc conqueror Helissio was third and his top-class stable-companion Singspiel was fourth). The first four home at Ascot, rated 134, 134, 133 and 133 respectively, were the four best older horses in Europe that year on Timeform ratings.

After a short break, Pilsudski’s busy autumn schedule began with a trip to Leopardstown where the betting made it a two-horse race between himself and three-year-old Desert King, the Irish 2000 Guineas/Derby winner who was one of the first horses to make a name for his trainer Aidan O’Brien. This was how Racehorses described the Irish Champion Stakes:

‘Pilsudski shaded favouritism over Desert King at Leopardstown, with Alhaarth the only other runner in the seven-strong line-up at shorter than 10/1. In the race itself there was only one horse in it! Pilsudski beat Desert King pointless, the pair finishing a street [officially fourteen lengths] ahead of third-placed Alhaarth. Desert King was provided with a pacemaker [No Slouch] to ensure a truly-run race, butt Pilsudski, always travelling strongly, moved up easily on the home turn and, though Desert King improved in his wake, Pilsudski forged ahead to beat him by four and a half lengths, eased near the finish.’

For the second year running, Pilsudski found only a top-notch three-year-old too good for him in the Arc - this time Peintre Celebre - but he ended his career with a couple more Group 1 victories. Less than a fortnight later he proved too strong for mainly three-year-old opposition in the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, while he added another country to his list of foreign conquests when gaining a neck win in Tokyo in the Japan Cup.

Pilsudski remained in Japan to begin his stallion career which, it has to be said, was nowhere near as successful as his racing career, though he did sire the dam of Fiorente who, before his sale to Australia where he won the 2013 Melbourne Cup, was successful in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes for Stoute and Ballymacoll. ‘All in all’, said Racehorses of Pilsudski, ‘he was a grand racehorse.’