The eyes of the racing world will be fixed firmly on Leopardstown and the Curragh this weekend for the inaugural staging of the much heralded Irish Champions Weekend.

With five Group 1 contests and strong supporting cards both days, a host of top class racing is in store and pride of place for the first edition of Champions Weekend goes to Australia. The dual Derby winner is the star turn of the two days as he bids for a fourth consecutive group 1 triumph in Saturday’s QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes.

Aidan O’Brien’s colt heads to Leopardstown on the back of a career best display in the Juddmonte International at York and it will be a major shock if he gets beaten although the likes of The Grey Gatsby, Mukhadram, Al Kazeem are respected opponents.

Fresh from her superb win in the Yorkshire Oaks, Tapestry drops back to a mile to head the home defence in the Group 1 Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes. However, the domestic team could have their work cut out to retain this prize. The top class English filly Integral and Thawaany, who would be a rare but very notable raider from France, are two very formidable foreign raiders.

In the Palmerstown House Estate Irish St Leger, the Ascot Gold Cup hero Leading Light sets the standard but another stern examination is in the offing for the Montjeu horse. The English raiders Seismos and Brown Panther are both respected along with former Leger hero Royal Diamond while Dermot Weld could field a pair of particularly strong challengers in Pale Mimosa and Forgotten Rules. The latter would be a particularly interesting as he annihilated his rivals on his sole flat start at Galway and he could be a stayer of the very highest calibre.

Gleneagles, a leading classic fancy for 2015, will look to bolster his credentials in the Goffs Vincent O’Brien Irish National Stakes while the Moyglare Stud Stakes looks a far more open affair with the Royal Ascot winner and Lowther Stakes second Cursory Glance holding strong claims for Newmarket trainer Roger Varian. Of the Irish-trained fillies Found would be especially interesting having looked potentially top drawer when making a winning debut at the Curragh several weeks ago.,

In terms of the handicaps on Champions Weekend, the Galway Hurdle second Bayan will make his return to the flat at Leopardstown in the Petingo Handicap. Gordon Elliott’s charge was placed in several valuable handicaps last autumn and has the capacity to land a valuable handicap on the level. Having ended a run of second place finishes in the Irish Cambridgeshire, Sretaw could bid for another major prize in the Sovereign Path Handicap over seven furlongs at Leopardstown.