When Southwell racecourse staged a seven-race card with 71 runners on a Friday afternoon three weeks ago, a grand total of 560 spectators turned up to watch. But there were nearly 1,000 here on Friday to watch just five runners, and there was something else too: the buzz that heralds the arrival of a special horse on a racecourse, as City Of Troy, the Derby winner, paid probably his final visit to a British track.
The instant that City Of Troy set foot on the Tapeta, he went straight into the top 1-2-3 of horses to appear at Southwell. The exact point where he fits in remains open for argument, as the other contenders for the No.1 spot are Galileo, the 2001 Derby winner and later a legendary stallion, and Giant’s Causeway, who went down only narrowly in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Classic. But if City Of Troy could succeed where both Galileo and Giant’s Causeway failed, and give Aidan O’Brien, the trainer of all three horses, a first win in the Classic, there would be no more room for debate.
The possibility of seeing a racing superstar a few weeks before a date with destiny drew hundreds of fans to what is, for the most part, one of the sport’s quieter backwaters.
The Fibresand surface that once passed as a fair imitator of the American dirt that City Of Troy will encounter for the first time at Del Mar on 2 November has been replaced by Tapeta, but the track staff had harrowed it more deeply than usual to make it more of a test. There was an American starting gate for the five-horse “gallop” over a mile as well as a bell to send them on their way, and a warm cheer of approval for City Of Troy as he powered nearly 10 lengths clear of his companions at the line.
O’Brien, who was slightly delayed by traffic problems on his way to Southwell, sensed the atmosphere as he arrived.
“We’re very grateful to everybody here because he would have felt it,” O’Brien said. “There was an unbelievable atmosphere, the minute you stopped here at the track, you could feel it. That was priceless for him, he felt he was racing today. The stalls, everything, he went in like a man, there was no waiting.”
City Of Troy will be O’Brien’s 16th runner in the Classic on dirt when he goes to post at Del Mar in California. In addition to Galileo and Giant’s Causeway, the previous 15 have included such star names from the trainer’s back-catalogue of champions as So You Think, Hawk Wing and Declaration Of War, a dirt-bred winner of the International Stakes at York who was a quarter-length third in 2013.
Henrythenavigator, a 2,000 Guineas winner, also finished second when the race was staged on a synthetic surface at Santa Anita in 2008, while the most bitter Classic memory of all for Ballydoyle is from Monmouth Park in 2007, when George Washington, the 2006 2,000 Guineas winner, suffered a fatal injury on a track that had been all but washed away by days of constant rain.
For all the earlier heartache and frustration, though, O’Brien’s ambition to become only the second European trainer – after another of the sport’s titans, Andre Fabre – to saddle a Classic winner on dirt remains undimmed.
“We always thought he was our best chance of winning the Classic since Giant’s Causeway, and we thought that he had a little bit more class than Giant’s Causeway,” O’Brien said. “From when he was a two-year-old, we had our eye on the Classic, the races were the Derby and the Classic.”
Like Giant’s Causeway – and unlike Galileo – City Of Troy is bred for the dirt. It is just that he has yet to try it. His sire, Justify, is the most recent winner of the US Triple Crown, and while he does not quite have the classic build of a dirt runner, he showed in last month’s International Stakes at York that he has the high cruising speed and ability to quicken again even off a white-hot pace that are the mark of a champion on the surface.
“His stride doesn’t shorten,” O’Brien said. “It keeps going and going. Ryan [Moore, his jockey] said it was only at the furlong marker that he started to open and go for the line. I thought for me watching him today, it was the best I’ve ever seen him with Ryan. When the tempo is strong like it was today, I thought Ryan was great on him, he was floating, and it was all in a rhythm.”
The hundreds of racing fans here on Friday had an “I was there” moment, and the hope that tens of thousands of racegoers will have a similar experience at Del Mar in November is very much alive.
Grab 66-1 about Tinto lifting Cup
American Affair, who squeezed home by a nose in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster last weekend, will be in rarefied company if he can follow up in Saturday’s Ayr Gold Cup as the last horse to complete the double was Lochsong, a multiple Group One winner later in her career, back in 1992.
American Affair could yet prove to be a Group One horse in a handicap but Saturday’s race is another step up and 6-1 is a thin price for a horse whose run style could always create issues.
An each-way alternative is required, and the bottom-weight Tinto (3.35) could be significantly over-priced at odds of up to 66-1.
Michael Dods’s gelding can blow hot and cold but did nothing wrong when winning in a useful time at Thirsk in August. He was a fine second in the Silver Cup 12 months ago off a 4lb lower mark, has a decent draw in stall five and useful apprentice Rhys Elliott takes off a handy 7lb.
Ayr 1.15 Obelix got off the mark for the season with something to spare at Haydock earlier this month and he looks more than capable of coping with a modest 4lb rise in the weights.
Newbury 1.30 Albasheer put up a career-best under 9st 12lb to finish a close fourth in the Portland and would have been a live contender for the Ayr Gold Cup so it is interesting that Archie Watson has opted for this Group Three alternative.
Ayr 1.50 A decent renewal of the Doonside Cup but the most interesting and unexposed contender is Eydon, who finished fourth in the 2,000 Guineas in April 2022 on his third career start. If Andrew Balding can coax out some of his three-year-old ability, he could well outrun odds of around 14-1.
Hamilton 2.12 Miss Lalita 2.42 Jack Of Clubs 3.12 Bay Dream Believer 3.42 Nariko (nap) 4.12 She’s Got Bottle 4.42 Impressor 5.12 Susiesparkle
Plumpton 2.20 Dameofthecotswolds 2.50 Into The Sunset 3.20 Rogue King 3.50 Junkanoo 4.20 Stormin Crossgales (nb) 4.50 Greatness Awaits
Newbury 2.05 After three straight wins, Kotari’s hot streak came to an end at Epsom in June but has been given a break since and still has scope for progress over the longest trip he has tackled on the Flat.
Ayr 2.25 Plenty of pace in the low-numbered stalls for the Silver Cup and the strong-finishing Brooklyn Nine Nine is well placed in 15 to drop in behind the far side group and strike inside the final furlong.
Hamilton Park 1.48 Temper Trap 2.23 Koulikoro 2.58 Music History 3.33 Spectacular Style (nb) 4.08 Stash The Cash 4.43 Gundogan 5.15 Gentle Ellen
Sedgefield 2.30 Dumb Love 3.05 Getaway Jewel 3.40 Lord Accord 4.15 Kopa Kilana 4.50 Cash Again 5.20 Lowlands
Wolverhampton 4.25 Eldeyaar 5.00 Good Banter 5.30 Dandy G Boy 6.00 Pinball Wizard (nap) 6.30 Banana 7.00 Blacklion 7.30 Bigz Belief 8.00 Shaka 8.30 Cariad
Leicester Meeting abandoned (waterlogged)
Newbury 2.40 Whip Cracker has been gelded since finishing mid-division in the Britannia at Royal Ascot and has a definite chance on earlier form at Newmarket.
Ayr 3.00 Several potential improvers in the field and William Haggas’s Sky Majesty could well make significant progress from her narrow success on debut in August.
Newbury 3.15 There was just a head between Shadow Of Light and Symbol Of Strength when they finished second and third respectively in the Gimcrack at York and the disparity in their early odds here – 11-4 favourite and around 7-1 – makes little sense.
• Comments will open on this piece later on Friday
