Top Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien is leaving no stone unturned in his bid to win the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Classic for the first time in his glittering career.
Stable star City Of Troy will undertake a full-scale workout at Southwell Racecourse on Friday to prepare for his tilt at one of North America’s most iconic races.
The Epsom Derby winner is the bookmakers’ favourite to break O’Brien’s duck in an event considered by many people to be the premier thoroughbred race of the year in the US.
Bettors who regularly play bitcoin jackpot slots from Betpanda UK may be enticed by the odds of 3/1 available for City Of Troy to win the Classic at Del Mar.
O’Brien is eager to ensure the horse has the best possible preparation for a race which has proved to be notoriously difficult to win for international raiders.
“He’ll go a mile with probably four or five other horses, and we’ll go a strong, fast pace for a mile and see what will happen,” O’Brien said.
“He’ll work out of American stalls, so we’ll have it as close as we can. Obviously, we won’t have the surface but that’s not a bad thing because it’s a little bit of a step in between grass and dirt rather than a big jump straight away.
“We’ll work the fastest horses we can. We’ll go very hard in the first half of the race, and I don’t know what is going to happen after that.
“No horse we’ve ever sent to Southwell has ever worked well. They all just about finish with the lead horse, and maybe it will be the same. I don’t know, but it will be interesting.”
After rattling off three impressive victories as a juvenile, City Of Troy was touted as ‘the next big thing’ by O’Brien, the horse’s owners and numerous racing pundits.
However, the son of Justify ran a shocker in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in May to send O’Brien scurrying back to the drawing board at Ballydoyle.
The horse has since proved the doubters wrong, winning the Epsom Derby, Coral-Eclipse Stakes and Juddmonte International Stakes in three subsequent outings.
The manner of his performance on his most recent run was particularly eye-catching, with the horse making all the running on his way to setting a new track record.
The controlled aggression he showed on that occasion should stand him in good stead in the Classic, and he will be tough to pass if he can replicate that form.
Racing fans will have the chance to weigh up how City Of Troy copes with the switch to an artificial surface, with Southwell offering free admission to the workout.
O’Brien previously used the racecourse as a stepping stone for Giant’s Causeway before his attempt to win the Classic at Churchill Downs in 2000.
‘The Iron Horse’ had an epic battle with Tiznow in the home straight, but was ultimately beaten by a neck. O’Brien has never come closer to winning the race since then.
O’Brien has admitted that winning the Classic would probably be the highlight of a career which has been packed with numerous memorable moments.
“We’ve never won it,” O’Brien added. “We’ve tried very hard, a lot of times, for 25 years, but we’ve yet to win it. It’s a very difficult race to win.
“You’re going to a different world, a different culture, a different track, a different surface. Everything is different and it’s very tough. For one of our horses to win, he has to be a lot better than the opposition over there.”
Suzanne Ashton, Founder of Everything Horse (Est, 2012), has a BA Hons in Marketing Management and a Diploma in Equine Science. Suzanne has ridden and owned horses all her life and has twelve years of experience in marketing, writing, design, SEO, and website creation.