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The King and Queen’s Desert Hero could head to Australia at the start of 2024, for a possible tilt at the twelve-furlong Group 1 Tancred Stakes, held at Rosehill in Sydney on 30 March.

Although the idea of a run in the Melbourne Cup was explored after victories in the King George V Handicap Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 3 Gordon Stakes Stakes in late August, connections chose to swerve the Australian adventure after the colt's brave third in the Group 1 St Leger at Doncaster.

With the ground soft, the 1m6f event turned into an attritional test and it was decided that Desert Hero would be put away for the winter rather than enter quarantine for the Melbourne Cup.

Trainer William Haggas is no stranger to taking a horse abroad to pick up valuable prizes and has enjoyed big race success in Australia over the last few years, with stars such as Addeybb and Dubai Honour.

In an interview with Sky Sports Racing, Haggas said: "We won't decide until January. They won't go into quarantine until February 20 and the first race is March 23, I think they would arrive in Australia on March 9.

"Dubai Honour is going to go and a staying horse called Post Impressionist will go who has been sold to Australian connections.

"We are umming and ahhing about Desert Hero maybe going for the Tancred Stakes, I'm not sure. He's not thriving at the moment so I'm not sure. He's just not enjoying the cold but there's plenty of time, he's come back in from his holiday so we'll see.

"We won't make any decision on him for ages. It's a long way off."