Ruby Walsh feels last year's winner Luxembourg has plenty to prove in Saturday's Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes.
Winner of the race last season he heads into this year's renewal seemingly as stable second string behind Auguste Rodin and the star pundit feels the market has it right.
Speaking on Paddy Power’s Punters’ Panel – ‘Irish Champions Festival Edition’ Walsh said: "Maybe I have Luxembourg on too high a pedestal in my own mind and I’m being a bit harsh on him then form wise, but look he was all the rage to beat Coroebus in the Guineas last year, he wasn’t even favourite but there was plenty of talk about him, he was supposed to be this, that and the other, he met a setback on that day, fell in when he beat Insinuendo on the Curragh before coming to the Champion Stakes and Aidan O’Brien had turned him inside to beat Onesto here.
"Didn’t stay in the Arc, came back this year, Declan McDonogh gave Visualisation a great ride at the Curragh in a slowly run race on his reappearance, he was favourite. Then he beat Bay Bridge and Vadeni on Guineas weekend and then he went to Ascot and got run over by Mostahdaf.
"The fact he got beaten six lengths by Mostahdaf after getting what looked like the run of the race Luxembourg I kind of got deflated with him and then he ran disappointing in the King George. To me he’s coming off the back of two deflating runs, maybe I’m being too hard on him, maybe he is still a very good horse but just to me he hasn’t lived up to his hype."
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