Connections of Hotazhell are looking to the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes as preparation for the Qatar Racing Champion Stakes at Ascot where they hope he will get his preferred ground.
The Jessica Harrington-trained four-year-old was a one-and-a-half-length third behind Purview in a hot renewal of the Irish International Stakes at the Curragh before heading to Germany to make all and win the Group One Grosser Dallmayr-Preis in Munich.
Five of the seven runners of that Curragh race have subsequently gone on and won and the Harrington team could not be happier with how the Too Darn Hot colt – who accounted for Delacroix in the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster in his juvenile season – is ahead of the Leopardstown showpiece on Saturday week.
Kate Harrington, assistant to her mother, was at the Curragh on Wednesday to see him work and said: “We’re delighted with him. He’s come out of Germany really, really well. We actually couldn’t be happier with him and we’re delighted with his workout there.
“He went really, really well and [jockey] Shane [Foley] was over the moon with him. He had his usual bit of antics beforehand, but that’s him. If he didn’t do that he wouldn’t be Hotazhell — he’s very well named!
“He really loved the ground out there and any bit of rain that falls between now and then we won’t be saying ‘no’ to.
“In the spring he had a bit of a slow start and he just took a little while to come to himself. He was hanging the first day in Navan and we’ve kind of ironed that out now and then the form of the race here at the Curragh behind Purview has worked out extraordinary well.
“We were hoping for the best going into Germany and Shane did have to go to Plan Z, the plan wasn’t to make it, but he was very, very good.
“We’re thinking of the Irish Champion Stakes as a stepping stone towards the English Champion Stakes where you hope he’d have heavy ground. Shane wants to see him back on heavy ground and thinks we’ll see a different class of horse then.”
On the same afternoon, stablemate Green Impact will go for the Kilternan Stakes at a track he loves, with three wins and a short-head defeat from four races at the Dublin circuit.
The Wootton Bassett colt was only denied in the dying strides by Willie Mullins’ Breeders’ Cup winner Ethical Diamond in the Ballyroan Stakes as he surrendered his 100 per cent record.
Harrington said: “It was his first time apart from the Irish Derby contending a mile and a half and he seemed to see it out really really well. He hit the line really, really well that day and we’ve just given him a little bit of a break since then.
“But looking at the entries it’s not really like a Group Three, it’s more like a Group One.”