After winning his first two races, the colt finished fourth in the July 30th Group Two Prix Robert Papin to winner Pitasia.
In the 1979 season, three-year-old Irish River duplicated his previous year's record by again winning five of his six starts.
At the end of his racing career Entered stud in 1980 at Haras du Quesnay in Calvados.
He was acquired by John R. Gaines who brought him to stand at stud in 1981–2001 at his Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Kentucky where his influential sire Riverman had stood.
Due to declining fertility, he was pensioned in 2001 having sired 87 stakes winners including: Irish River is the damsire of notable runners such as: At age twenty-eight, Irish River died suddenly of a massive heart attack on April 25, 2004, at Gainesway Farm.