City Of Troy heading to Derby at Epsom despite 2000 Guineas flop

The son of Justify was champion two-year-old after an unbeaten juvenile campaign ended with a win in the Dewhurst Stakes but his was a bitter disappointment on his return to Newmarket at the weekend.

Sent off the 4/6 favourite he was beaten just after halfway and trailed home in ninth behind winner Notable Speech.

Speaking on Monday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast, the trainer said: "Thinking back on it maybe I had him too fresh and hadn't enough done with him through the winter. Our ground has been very bad and very deep here and that’s what’s going in my mind.

"He just jumped and ran too fresh and then just blew out. I think that’s the reason and we’ll know more next time and hopefully that will be the end of that. But if I go back in my own head, that’s what I think could have happened."

Many are of the opinion that the colt might not have trained on, but the trainer dismissed that theory, adding: "I stood into him before he got tacked up on Saturday and I stood into him again this morning. He’s just under 16.1 and that means he’s plenty big enough for anything. He's very well made and looks a lot smaller than he is.

“When he went into the stalls he stood straight up straight away and for me that meant he was too fresh. When that happens, their heart-rate will rise straight away and he landed and the gates opened and he wouldn’t have had chance for that to go back down so was racing straight away. There's every chance if he was needing the run and too fresh at halfway his heart couldn’t go any higher and could only drop down. I think that’s what happened.

“We’d been happy with everything he’d done, he’s always been very natural at home and done everything very easily and if he was a horse who didn’t have as much ability he’d probably have been finding his work harder than he was finding it.

“I’m putting it down to that. He’s still on the same plan, you always make one and every part of a plan doesn’t always go right. That’s what we’re putting this down to and next time we’ll know an awful lot more.

“The plan is he’ll go straight to the Derby providing everything goes well in the next couple of weeks, obviously.”

The trainer was pleased with Ylang Ylang's run in the Sunday's QIPCO 1000 Guineas and she's clear favourite for the Betfred Oaks after staying on into fifth behind Elmalka.

“She was working like an Oaks filly more than a Guineas filly but working like one who could run a very big race at Newmarket and that’s what we felt she did," O'Brien said.

"She looked like a filly who is definitely going up to step up to a mile-and-a-quarter and usually if they have enough class at a mile-and-a-quarter they have a good chance of getting a mile-and-a-half at Epsom."

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