Ahead of the Betfred Derby, Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners are "back dreaming again" with City of Troy.
Despite having a rather lacklustre race in the 2000 Guineas on his debut outing at three, the Justify colt has taken back the top spot in the betting for the premier Classic.
O'Brien has offered a number of explanations for his eclipse at Newmarket, but he has never once in a million lost hope on the champion juvenile from the previous year.
In fact, spending time with the Ballydoyle maestro makes it difficult to resist getting carried away by his excitement, and considering the superstars he has worked with, some of his claims about City of Troy's potential are shocking.
“Everything has been good since (the Guineas) and we just accepted that all these things just happened and went wrong on the day and we’ve decided to stay with the plan. He’s done nothing since to make us change the plan. The plan was always to start with the Guineas and go on to the Derby and then go wherever after that and that’s where we still are,” he said. “Sometimes it happens and obviously it happened in the Guineas and it happened again last weekend (in the French Guineas, with Henry Longfellow). Sometimes things don’t work and really I would always say that it’s my responsibility to make sure it works and when it doesn’t work, well we’ve done our homework but maybe we didn’t do it all properly. That’s the way I would look at the Guineas.”
O`Brien continued: “When he went down to the start he should have been relaxed, but he went into the stalls and he was revved up. He wasn’t flustered, but obviously his mind wasn’t in the right place, because he’s a very good-natured horse as you can see – unusually good for a colt. He’s very calm and relaxed, but it all just happened at the wrong few seconds.
It will make it very interesting the next day. For us, I’m not sure we’ve ever sent a horse to the Derby with as much ability as this. If we can get him to come out of those gates and everything to work properly for him then we can have him in the right place.”
Many were taken aback by City Of Troy's performance over seven furlongs last year, given that he was by an American Triple Crown champion and out of a Galileo mare. In most cases, you would expect him to get better for stepping up in trip, but O'Brien appears to have unquestionable endurance.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think I ever did (doubt his stamina). I never thought any trip was a problem for him. You’re never sure until you do it, but he has a big, long stride and he’s usually very chilled and relaxed. But it will be a very interesting race now,” said O’Brien. “I suppose what he did last year – everything he was doing last year, the statistics were adding up. His times, everything. He never disappointed us in any way. But we all know horse racing and we all know life – no one knows what’s going to happen in the next half hour. Listen, the Guineas just wasn’t meant to be. I feel like, myself, I hadn’t got him prepared properly, so what we would have learned in the Guineas will hopefully help us to prepare him properly for the Derby. He’s obviously by Justify, who was an unbeaten Triple Crown winner, and out of a Group One-winning Galileo mare, so one thing you cannot stop coming out in anything is pedigree and his is as blue as it gets, so hopefully he’s well and we can have him in the right place.”
At Epsom, City of Troy is probably going to have one or more stablemates, though it's unclear which ones. He has a strong rival in his own right, though, as the undefeated Group One winner of Ireland's greatest Derby trial is in Los Angeles.
O’Brien said: “I loved the way Los Angeles won at Leopardstown and the beauty about him is that he’s a horse who we’ve always thought can only get better the further he goes. So the fact he has already won a Group One in France and Ireland’s best Derby trial can only bode well. Illinois came forward a good bit from the Ballysax, but it looks very much like he met a good horse (Ambiente Friendly) at Lingfield. He didn’t look in love with the track, but other than not winning I was very happy with him. We thought Capulet had a very good chance of reversing the form from Chelmsford (at Chester) with the winner (Bracken’s Laugh) and that’s what happened. He came forward a good bit from that run and is a very straightforward type. We’ve had plenty of interest from Hong Kong for him, but he could still go to Epsom at this stage.”