Return of Ballydoyle heavyweight Luxembourg indicates step up in flat campaign

The start of May marks the emergence of the first real Ballydoyle heavyweight as Luxembourg gets his four-year-old campaign under way at the Curragh’s bank holiday Monday fixture.

Just a couple of days after Punchestown’s finale to the jumps campaign, and with the classics set to start at Newmarket this weekend, there could hardly be a bigger signal of the switch of seasons.

Aidan O’Brien’s initial plans to bring Luxembourg back in Europe’s first Group One of 2023, Sunday’s Prix Ganay at Longchamp won by Iresine, were scrapped in favour of a Group Two option at HQ.

Conceding weight

Last season’s Irish Champion Stakes hero returns to action in the Coolmore Sottsass Mooresbridge Stakes where he will have to concede weight to half a dozen opponents.

Aidan O’Brien has favourite chances to pull off historic classic hat-trick at Epsom and Chantilly

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Auguste Rodin proves powerless to resist White Birch at the Curragh

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Guineas falls to Burke’s Angel and completes cross-channel Curragh Classic double

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Sean Levey leads home Hannon one-two on ‘exceptional’ Rosallion in Irish 2,000 Guineas

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He does so without the suspended Ryan Moore so Wayne Lordan takes over in the plate.

Neither does it look like a gimme for the colt who was a Futurity winner as a juvenile but whose classic career was interrupted by injury.

With Ballydoyle’s other classic colts failing to fire in 2022, there was palpable relief when Luxembourg beat French starters Onesto and Vadeni at Leopardstown in September.

He subsequently finished out of the Arc frame on bottomless ground and there remains a sense of unfulfilled potential about the Camelot colt.

The winter reportedly hasn’t been wasted on Luxembourg with Moore describing him as having further matured into a “big strong boy”.

The first step back to the Arc, with potential mid-summer stops at Royal Ascot and King George en route, is likely to take place on easy ground conditions at the Curragh.

That will be no trouble to the Group One Alary winner Above The Curve or Insinuendo who has race-fitness on her side.

The Irish Derby runner-up Piz Badile is joined in the line-up too by last year’s winner Layfayette and Jessica Harrington’s progressive Trevanuance.

This shapes as no easy return to action for Luxembourg although five days out from Auguste Rodin and Little Big Bear lining up in the 2,000 Guineas, it will be a blow to Ballydoyle if he doesn’t oblige.

The significance or otherwise of O’Brien’s jockey arrangement elsewhere on the Curragh card is likely to get attention.

Seamus Heffernan rode Drumroll, a brother to Saxon Warrior, on his successful Navan debut yet he switches to Paddington in the Tetrarch.

It’s noteworthy in the context of Lordan’s apparent promotion to Ballydoyle’s number-two jockey which would seem to indicate the €340,000 purchase Unquestioanble might be stable preferred in the earlier Listed First Flier Stakes.

This one notably carries the Al Shaqab colours in partnership with Coolmore while Heffernan is on the No Nay Never colt, His Majesty.

All of it may prove academic though if Noche Magica builds on the very good impression made on his Cork debut.

Ryan Moore got a Group One exemption to allow him ride Bay Bridge in Sunday’s Ganay but the English favourite managed only third.

It was the six-year-old Iresne, ridden by Marie Velon, who upset Bay Bridge and last year’s French Derby winner Vadeni in fourth.

Iresne got the better of Dermot Weld’s Search For A Song in last October’s Prix Royal Oak over almost two miles.

The gelding made light of the drop back to an extended 10 furlongs and came from last to first to comfortably beat another local star, Simca Mille.

Down Royal

Ireland’s other bank holiday fixture has Down Royal starting the 2023-24 National Hunt campaign in low-key fashion.

Having finished Punchestown with a record prizemoney haul of almost €7.3 million for the previous campaign, the 17-time champion trainer Willie Mullins starts again from nought with a single runner in the North.

Paul Marvel goes in a three-mile hurdle under Kieran Callaghan, one of those riders hoping to exploit the brief hiatus taken by top jockeys on the back of Punchestown.

Separately, trainer Michael Stoute and the 2009 Derby and Arc hero Sea The Stars have been inducted into Qipco British Champions Series Hall of Fame.

Stoute is the first active trainer to enter the exclusive list, joining the late Vincent O’Brien and Henry Cecil. Sea The Stars joins other modern legends such as Frankel in the Hall of Fame.