AIDAN O’BRIEN has downplayed the chance of the unbeaten Luxembourg heading into Saturday’s 2000 Guineas.
The exciting colt, who made it three wins from three starts when bagging the Vertem Futurity Trophy at Doncaster in October, is a 4-1 shot for the Classic with Paddy Power.
He is considered one of the biggest threats to Charlie Appleby’s red-hot favourite Native Trail.
But his all-conquering trainer, who has won the 2000 Guineas a record 10 times, reckons his horse faces a tall order making his reappearance in the Group 1 this weekend.
O’Brien said: “He is in good form. He has wintered well and everything has gone well.
“We had him at the Curragh four or five weeks ago and that all went well. Everything has gone according to plan since then.
“He was quite natural and did everything he did last year and he is the same in his work this year.
“Obviously it is a big ask to start him off in the Guineas and he is looking like he will be a middle-distance horse, but we started similar horses like Camelot and Australia in the Guineas.
“We think and hope it is the right place to start. He seems in good form and we will learn a lot about him.”
There have been comparisons made between Luxembourg and his dad, Camelot, who also won the Futurity Trophy before bagging the Guineas first-time-out.
O’Brien, who also saddles Point Lonsdale at Newmarket, continued: “He is a big scopey horse and probably physically bigger than Camelot was as a two or three year old.
“He is very athletic and very natural in everything he does. He has a very high cruising pace. He has a lot of the sharpness that Camelot had.
“I know that Ryan was very impressed with Luxembourg at Doncaster last year.
“It is not fair for Ryan to make up his mind between Luxembourg and Point Lonsdale until later in the week when he has seen everything and they have done their last pieces of work.
“He has won a Group 1 on Luxembourg and I would not be surprised if he rides him, but I wouldn’t like to say which one he would go for at this stage.”
