QIPCO Champions Day: Australia in line for Ascot

Champions Day at Ascot is the likely next port of call for Australia following his shock defeat at Leopardstown on Saturday.

Aidan O'Brien's dual Derby hero and emphatic Juddmonte International winner was long odds-on to add another Group One prize to his collection in the Irish Champion Stakes, but York form was reversed as International runner-up The Grey Gatsby gained his revenge.

Australia could now head to Ascot, with both the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile and the mile and a quarter Champion Stakes under consideration on October 18.

O'Brien said: "Everything that could go wrong went wrong. He was handy and the pace was on and then the pace came back to him and he had to go to the outside of James Doyle's horse (Al Kazeem) and then he couldn't get back behind him. He ended up having to go early.

"The boys will decide where he goes next. Obviously there is Champions day, and they will decide whether it is the mile and a quarter race or the mile.

"He travels very strongly through his races and he did the same again yesterday, so I doubt he will go for the Arc. We'll talk things through but we won't be making any decisions yet - it will be the middle of the week before I can deal with it all.

"I think it was about 4am this morning when it finally started to sink in, but that's racing. It's been a weekend full of ups and downs, and at least we were able to get some nice winners on board with Gleneagles and John F Kennedy."

The trainer's son Joseph has come in for some criticism for his riding tactics and the jockey admitted that with hindsight, he would probably have opted for different tactics.

He told At The Races: "It's a great game. You have your ups and your downs.

"Australia ran a good race. Things probably couldn't have gone much worse for me and things probably couldn't have gone better for the winner.

"On the day I just got touched off, but we live to fight another day.

"I'd probably do it slightly different if I had it back again, but hindsight's a great thing and we live and learn and it won't happen again.

"I went very wide and plenty of things went wrong for me. It would be great if we could ride every race again, but unfortunately we can't.

"I'm really looking forward to wherever he goes."