Group 1 hero Hotazhell pleased connections with a work at The Curragh during the Irish Champions Festival preview morning on Wednesday. The son of Too Darn Hot is targeting the G1 Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes on September 12, the first day of the Irish Champions Festival.Third in the event in 2025, the four-year-old Silverton Hill Partnership runner was third in a listed event in June, his 2026 bow, before filling the same spot in the G3 International Stakes at The Curragh later that month. The Jessica Harrington trainee eked out a nose victory in the G1 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis at Munich in July.Kate Harrington, assistant to her mother, was at The Curragh on Wednesday to see him work and said, “He went really, really well and [jockey] Shane [Foley] was over the moon with him. 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.”After the Irish Champion, the G1 Qatar Racing Champion Stakes at Ascot is the long-term goal.She added, “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.”Joining Hotazhell for the Irish Champions Festival is stablemate and G2 Champions Juvenile Stakes hero Green Impact (Wootton Bassett) for Marcstown Farms. Also a four-year-old, the colt is headed for the G3 Kilternan Stakes on the same day after running second to GI Breeders' Cup Turf hero Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) in the G3 Ballyroan Stakes in August.Harrington said: “He hit the line really, really well that day [in the Ballyroan] 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 3, it's more like a Group 1.”Thundering On Set For Blandford ReturnShapoor Mistry's Thundering On (Frankel) was also in action at The Curragh on Wednesday morning ahead of an intended start in the G2 Moyglare “Jewels” Blandford Stakes during the second day of the Irish Champions Festival, September 13.The Joseph O'Brien-trained G1 Oaks heroine ran fourth to the recently retired Estrange (Night Of Thunder) in the G1 Pretty Polly Stakes at the end of June and has received a break in the interim, after plans to contest July's G1 Irish Oaks did not materialise.“She's had a little mid-season break with a view to focusing on an autumn campaign and this is a lovely starting point for her,” said O'Brien. “The Blandford is a Group 2, but it looks like the race could end up being a Group 1 [in quality] and she looks like a live contender.”Other O'Brien contenders across the two days include Trustyourinstinct (Churchill) in the G1 Comer Group International Irish St Leger versus his father Aidan's Scandinavia (Justify). He was a last-out winner of the G2 Curragh Cup in July.O'Brien said, “I think Trustyourinstinct will be the main one for us in the Irish Leger, he loves the Curragh and is coming off the back of a career best.”'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Star Of State (State Of Rest), runner-up in the G2 Lowther Stakes in August, will step forward for the Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sales Stakes which offers €135,000 to the winner. Two other O'Brien fillies are likely for the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes in G2 Debutante Stakes one-two Green Empress (Saxon Warrior) and Dancing Destiny (Magna Grecia). The former has finished second twice to the G1 Phoenix Stakes and Harry's Half Million victress Sun Goddess (Sioux Nation), and that rival, as well as Debutante third Alpha (Sea The Stars), are both possible for the Moyglare.“Green Empress has done great and obviously is the Debutante winner and she will probably be joined in the Moyglare by Dancing Destiny who was second behind her in the Debutante,” said O'Brien.In the G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National Stakes, O'Brien has pencilled in Phoenix Stakes second Folsom Blues (Blue Point).The post Hotazhell Pleases Connections With Curragh Work Ahead Of Irish Champions Festival appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.