The Lion In Winter is set to lead a three-strong Aidan O’Brien team for the Boyle Sports Lockinge Stakes next month.

The master of Ballydoyle last won the Newbury Group 1 with Rhododendron in 2018, while he also famously won the one-mile feature with Hawk Wing back in 2003.

It is The Lion In Winter who is the shortest of O’Brien’s possible runners this time around at 10/1 with the sponsors after a winning return at Leopardstown and he could be joined in Berkshire by Expanded, who was half a length adrift in second on that occasion, and the fifth Mississippi River.

O’Brien said: “There’s three horses who ran at Leopardstown that might run in the Lockinge and the Lope De Vega (Mississippi River) will have to be supplemented, but that is the plan at the moment.

“I was very happy with The Lion In Winter at Leopardstown. The Lion In Winter would be the number one, but Expanded was flying home and we have always liked him, he just didn’t get a clear run last year. By the way he ran you would have to give Expanded a chance.

“The Lion In Winter is a very consistent horse, but Expanded was second in the Dewhurst on his second run and we just couldn’t get him right last year.”

The Lockinge betting is currently headed by John and Thady Gosden’s Field Of Gold and Karl Burke’s Zeus Olympios, with that duo set to go head-to-head at Sandown on Friday in a race that often serves as a stepping stone to Newbury.