O’Brien backs Luxembourg to make mark

AIDAN O’BRIEN is already looking forward to seeing what Luxembourg can do later in the year after being forced to rule him out of the Cazoo Derby at Epsom next month.

Unbeaten in three starts as a juvenile last season, the son of Camelot spent the winter months as ante-post favourite for the premier Classic. He cemented that position by finishing third in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, but O’Brien revealed he had suffered a setback last week and he now requires a spell on the sidelines.

While disappointed Luxembourg will miss out on a trip to Epsom, O’Brien remains excited about his prospects.

“You have to put it in perspective. I’m disappointed for the lads [owners], but we’ve done our best and that’s the reality and we move on,” said the Ballydoyle handler. “It’s only a waste of energy thinking about it. We just move on and believe me, he’s a really good horse – we’d be confident in that.”

There are obvious comparisons to be made between Luxembourg and St Nicholas Abbey, who finished sixth in the Guineas in 2010 but subsequently missed the Derby and ultimately the rest of his three-year-old campaign. It did not stop him progressing into a top-class performer, however, as he went on to win three Coronation Cups at Epsom, a Breeders’ Cup Turf and a Dubai Sheema Classic.

“Luxembourg probably has more scope than St Nicholas Abbey, so it will be interesting,” O’Brien added. “Because of what happenedintheGuineas,wedidn’t really see what he was able to do and he was only beaten two lengths. He’s very classy and what he did in the Guineas, he shouldn’t have been able to do. He ended up totally on the back foot [having stumbled] and for a horse that was bred to be a mile-anda-quarter/mile-and-a-half horse to come with a run like that, it was a very serious run for a middle-distance horse.”