Luxembourg on course for return to action in Royal Whip

Luxembourg is on track to make his long-awaited reappearance at the Curragh in a fortnight.

The Group 3 Fitzdares Royal Whip Stakes over 10 furlongs has been pencilled in for last year’s Futurity winner whose only start this season was when third in April’s 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.

Luxembourg was made Derby favourite on the back of that but was forced to miss Epsom after a setback and hasn’t been seen since.

The absence of their leading three-year-old colt has been keenly felt by Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle team this summer.

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However, an ambitious autumn schedule, potentially ending with a tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris in October, could make up for lost time.

“That [Royal Whip] is the plan at the moment. We can start there and if everything goes well, we could look at the Irish Champion Stakes,” O’Brien said on Friday.

“If everything went well in that we could then look at the Arc. They are the three races we have in mind but programmes can change obviously,” added O’Brien who described the Camelot colt as “going lovely” in his preparation.

Despite his lengthy absence, Luxembourg is a general 16-1 shot for Arc glory following indications on Friday that Epsom Derby winner Desert Crown is unlikely to make the Longchamp highlight.

What of Desert Crown?

Connections of the Sir Michael Stoute-trained colt said a slight setback means it is a race against time to get ready for the Arc and Desert Crown could be left alone to concentrate instead on a four-year-old career in 2023.

“It’s a minor injury but enough to stop Sir Michael preparing him for the midsummer races. We were hoping to get him back for the backend, for the Arc or the Champion Stakes, but that’s in Sir Michael’s hands,” said the owner’s spokesman, Bruce Raymond.

“I must stress it is a minor injury. The difficulty is, would he have time to prepare which probably is doubtful,” he added.

Bookmaker reaction was to make the Titleholder a general 5-1 favourite to finally break Japan’s duck in the Arc. The four-year-old is a triple-Group One winner in his native country.

Luxembourg’s full brother, Hiawatha, made a promising debut when just edged out at Killarney earlier this month and bids to get off the mark second time of asking in a Galway maiden on Saturday.

Aidan O’Brien has won the same race in the past with subsequent Group One winners Broome (2018) and Capri (2016).