There was €4.6m in total prize money up for grabs across Irish Champions Weekend, but the race that stole the show had no prize money for the winner at all.

Pat Smullen’s Champions Race for Cancer Trials Ireland will likely go down as one of the biggest fundraisers ever run in this country.

It was an event that captured the imagination of the racing and sport industries, not just in Ireland but worldwide.

Final figures have yet to be released but there are estimates north of a staggering €2m.

Jockeys, trainers, owners and stable staff all ran hugely successful campaigns to raise money.

Prominent owner Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum donated €500,000 at the Gala ball and auction held on Saturday night while Eva Maria Bucher-Haefner of Moyglare Stud, long associated with Smullen, is also believed to have donated a substantial amount.

Generous donations

The general racing public have also donated in their thousands. Jockeys were on hand with buckets at Leopardstown on Saturday, while Dermot Weld reported on RTÉ that many racegoers had just walked up to him on Sunday to donate with €10, €20 and €50 notes.

The race itself matched its billing off the track when 20-time champion jockey Sir A.P. McCoy saw off his old rival and long-time friend Ruby Walsh in a driving finish.

Away from the charity race, Pinatubo was the star of the show, running out a nine-length winner of the National Stakes. It was a performance that prompted many to compare the Godolphin colt to Frankel.

Dermot Weld took the Comer Group International Irish St Leger with the filly Search For A Song while the other Group 1 races were shared out between the O’Briens. Aidan’s Magical gained a deserved success in the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes, having finished second to Enable on her previous two starts.

Fairyland won the Flying Five Stakes while Love proved too strong in the Moyglare Stud Stakes.

Iridessa scored for Joseph in the Coolmore Stud-backed Matron Stakes, her third career Group 1.