O’Brien: Luxembourg is exciting for next year

Four-year-old campaign promises so much for Irish Champion winner.

Aidan O’Brien is confident Luxembourg will make his mark at the highest level again this season.

Unbeaten in three juvenile starts in 2021, the Camelot colt kicked off last term with a third-placed finish in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in April but did not run again until mid-August.

He was workmanlike on his comeback in the Royal Whip Stakes when needing the run and raised his game significantly to see off the French challenge Onesto and Vadeni in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown the following month.

Luxembourg could finish only seventh on his most recent appearance in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but O’Brien is in no doubt he will be a force to be reckoned with as a four-year-old.

He said: “We were very happy with his first run back at the Curragh and delighted with him in Leopardstown.

“We trained him very hard for Leopardstown and a combination of that and the very soft ground in France for the Arc, it might have just been all a little bit too much for him.

“We think he’s going to be very smart this year.”

Luxembourg looks set to follow a tried and tested route, with the Tattersalls Gold Cup already identified as his first Group One objective before a potential appearance at Royal Ascot.

Aidan O'Brien has high hopes for Luxembourg in 2023
Aidan O’Brien has high hopes for Luxembourg in 2023 (Brian Lawless/PA)

O’Brien added: “We’ll start him at a mile and a quarter and look at a couple of those Irish mile-and-a-quarter races on the way to the Tattersalls Gold Cup.

“Then we could go from the Tattersalls on to maybe Royal Ascot for the Prince of Wales’s and we can go up in trip then after that.

“I didn’t think he’d get back for the Irish Champion the way he did, his run in the Arc was a respectable run and we thought there was plenty more to come from him.

“We think he’s going to be a very exciting horse.”

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