O'Brien is ecstatic to witness City of Troy reveal his true nature
Why did people ever question him? Aidan O'Brien once again displayed supernatural abilities as he led City of Troy back from the brink of defeat to win his record-tying tenth Derby and prove why he has always been regarded as a superstar in waiting.
The champion juvenile from the previous year had dashed all hopes and discussion of winning the Triple Crown after running such a poor performance in the 2000 Guineas, despite seeming so arrogant at two.
Given that his sire Justify won the American Triple Crown, it would have also made for an interesting story. However, O'Brien's recent victory in the Derby with one of his sons and his current status as a Coolmore stallion may come in handy down the road.
Despite his perfectionism, O'Brien was quite harsh on himself after the match since he believed that City of Troy blew his Guineas opportunity as soon as they emerged from the stalls.
He swiftly waved off the post-Derby awards, as usual. However, this was all about one guy and his ability to turn around a horse after a miserable run at Newmarket to win the Derby, much like he did with Auguste Rodin a year ago.
“We felt we’d never had a horse like him last year, but I left him too fresh for the Guineas and he exploded out of the stalls which sent his heart rate through the roof,” explained O’Brien. “That was the one stone we never looked under and we’d never had to look under it before, we never expected that to happen. Before he could get his breath back, he was out and gone. It took us two to three weeks to get him back to the stage where we could try the stalls again, and when we did we had the Fitbit on him and his heart rate was way above 240, so we knew what happened in Newmarket. We had to give him time and the last day he went back in the stalls he was as calm as anything, but because he didn’t officially play up in the stalls at Newmarket, he couldn’t get a ticket to go in late today, so he had to go in the middle, so we just had to hope he stayed relaxed and he did.”