O'Brien planning Arc raid

Aidan O’Brien has decided to let St Leger winner Scorpion take his chance in Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Scorpion will be returning to Longchamp, the scene of his impressive victory in the Grand Prix de Paris in July, for a second time when he lines up in the mile-and-a-half feature.

The Longchamp stewards have also given connections permission for the Montjeu colt to head the parade on Sunday after he played up and failed to take part in proceedings before the Grand Prix de Paris.

“The plan is to run Scorpion in the Arc, subject to everything being OK with him later in the week,” O’Brien told the Racing Post.

“We’ve been happy with him since his win in the St Leger and he’s in good form.”

Scorpion, who defeated The Geezer by a length at Doncaster, is a general 12-1 shot for the Arc.

Outlining plans for his juvenile runners this week, O’Brien announced he will also be sending next year’s Derby favourite Horatio Nelson to France on Sunday rather than for Newmarket’s Shadwell Stud Middle Park Stakes two days earlier.

The Ballydoyle handler added: “Horatio Nelson goes for the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Sunday, when Rumplestiltskin will probably run in the Prix Marcel Boussac.

“We are looking at running both Art Museum and Ivan Denisovich in the Middle Park Stakes on Friday.”