City of Troy stuns in Breeders' Cup preparation gallop at Southwell

By James Toney at Southwell

There's a story of a racing fan who preferred to watch their sport far from the madding crowd. Not for them the big jumps Festivals or summer flat showpieces, they found their sporting nirvana on the all-weather in Nottingham.

"The great thing about Southwell," they said. "Is nothing ever happens at Southwell."

Until today.

Aidan O'Brien's City of Troy - the world's highest rated turf horse - drew nearly 1,500 fans to the racecourse not see him race but just to see him work out. For racing fans it was a bit like watching Messi do an hour of shooting practice and keepie uppies.

O'Brien's training genius is well documented but this was no ordinary piece of work, as the Derby winner prepares for a potentially historic assault on the Breeders' Cup Classic in California in November.

America's premier weight-for-age race, run on dirt at Del Mar, has long been O'Brien's ambition, another tick to be ticked on his sport's greatest to do list. He has gone for glory with 14 stable stars this century, including the loved Galileo, but the closest he's come was Henrythenavigator's second in 2008.

But if a European turf horse is ever going to take on the best of America in their own back yard, then the smart money is on O'Brien to be the tactical mastermind behind it.

And he's never had a better chance than the beautifully bred City of Troy, whose stallion is US Triple Crown winning legend Justify.

Southwell isn't just an ocean apart from razzamatazz of Del Mar, famed as a track where the 'surf meets the turf', it's in another world.

However, it's synthetic tapeta track is O'Brien's best chance of conditioning his superstar to Del Mar's El Segundo Sand surface.

Like all things Ballydoyle, this gallop was plotted and planned with precision - the team brought American style stalls to Nottinghamshire and their own team to operate them.

City of Troy - who worked with a speed squad Congo River, Democracy, Master of the Hunt and Edwardian - flew in from Shannon this morning, ridden by Ryan Moore.

O'Brien, surveying the scene from behind his trademark dark glasses, wanted a strenuous workout over a sharp mile to replicate the high intensity of the Classic, always run at a rattling early pace.

The logic is early speed is vital on dirt tracks, the opposite of the way turf races are run, another reason why it's not easy to crack America.

"I felt watching him today was the best I've seen him with Ryan riding," said trainer Aidan O'Brien. "Rachel [Richardson] normally rides him in all his work and I thought that Ryan was beautiful on him.

"He galloped smoothly around the bend and when he said 'go' he really opened up and kept straight, which I loved. I'm sure everyone will have an opinion and it'll be analysed over and over, so it'll be interesting to see what people say, but we were happy with it."

O'Brien has won 18 times at racing's World Championships, ranking him just behind US trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert on the all-time list.

Seven of those wins have come in the Breeders' Cup Turf, including last year with Auguste Rodin, but just two of those successes have come on dirt, memorably Johannesburg's win in the Juvenile 23 years ago.

"We've tried but it's hard, the Classic is a very difficult race to win," added O'Brien.

''It's not just a different surface, it's a different world, different culture, different track. Everything there is different, and we need to be a lot better than the opposition to have our chance.

"You don't even dream about it because of how difficult it is. Every year you tweak things and look for different horses and different ways of doing it.''

But O'Brien also knows for all the hours spent sweating the details, things go wrong - the reason why City of Troy's resume of seven races, six wins, is scarred by his lacklustre ninth when the hottest of favourites at Newmarket's 2000 Guineas.

"You look under every stone and hopefully you’ve just looked under enough of them," he said. "However, it's the one stone you don't look under that can get you."