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Aidan O'Brien on City Of Troy and his Sky Bet Ebor Festival team

By David Ord

10:41 · MON August 12, 2024

Aidan O'Brien on City Of Troy, his season and career so far and hopes and expectations heading into the Juddmonte International.

When Aidan O'Brien sat down with us this week to talk through his team for the Sky Bet Ebor Festival we were 15 days out from the Juddmonte International and the next sighting of City Of Troy, poster boy for the week and poster boy for the season.

From the blow-out in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas to Betfred Derby glory in the space of four weeks this spring, he then headed to Sandown for the Coral-Eclipse and was joined by John Magnier and the full Coolmore team.

We thought it was the signal for fireworks, for the work that tempted the brains behind the most successful breeding and training empire our sport has seen, to head to Esher, to be transferred into a performance that would linger long in the memory.

It says much for the colt’s reputation that a length defeat of Al Riffa and co was seen as an anti-climax.

But maybe York, on quicker ground and with a long, galloping straight to devour will be the catalyst for the day they and we crave, the one that the showreels will include in the years and decades to come.

Aidan O'Brien: City Of Troy & The York Ebor Festival team

So how is he?

“He’s good, we’re happy with him since the Eclipse. He’s a horse who’s always captured everybody’s imagination and he’s in very good order at the moment,” O’Brien said.

“He’s strong in his work and everything is going well. We always thought York would be a track that would suit him, it’s a big open galloping track and class usually outs at York, there’s usually an even pace on.

“We’re happy with where he is and were happy with him at Sandown the last day. Things maybe didn’t work in his favour there for him to show off his strengths, but we were happy with what he did and delighted with him in the Derby before that and have been looking forward to York for a long time really.”

City of Troy is a dominant Derby winner

That Epsom success, or at least the back-story, bore a striking resemblance to the previous year’s triumph of Auguste Rodin. A Guineas blow-out to Derby glory in the space of four weeks, O’Brien is making the remarkable seem routine.

But for him his job – and that of the team – is to prevent the wash-out in the first place or at least learn the lessons from it and act accordingly.

“I didn’t have him prepared properly for the Guineas and it blew up in our faces really quickly, that does happen. We thought we were doing the right thing and obviously I wasn’t,” he said.

“You have to analyse every single thing that happened before, during and after and that’s what we did then you have to tweak things here and there. Again that’s what we did as we tried to get back on the road. There’s a road set out for the whole season and targets on that road you want to hit, and we went off that road fairly dramatically in the Guineas.

“We had to try and get back on it, make a lot of adjustments in lots of different places and obviously we didn’t want to fly back on the road and fly off the other side again, we had to try and gently get back to where we were supposed to be and not overdo it but tweak.

“You then go to the races and hope that things fall back into place. His next race was the Derby. He was far from the finished article, but we were happy to get back on the road and we had more to do between then and Sandown and we did them, but maybe we didn’t get things tactically 100% right that day.

“He won but obviously wasn’t really impressive although he won nicely, so we felt after that we had more tweaks to make and that happens all the time when things don’t work.

“The tweaks are in routine, training, everybody would have discussed it, everyone puts in their two pennies worth, we have a discussion and try and come up with the right solution, the right work pattern, the right daily programme of things that should be done and shouldn’t be done every day to help him to perform.

“Obviously those real good, top horses are bursting with ability in lots of different areas, and you have to get them in a way so they can control it and use it when you want it.

“Everybody must come on board, nobody says too much about it because it’s always kind of very much an in-house thing and there are a lot of people helping make that happen.

“When it works that’s why I’m always very conscious of trying to name as many people as I can and there are others I don’t name because there are so many involved and I don’t get time and people get sick of listening to me but those are the people who make it happen really

“We come up with the programme, a part of it like everyone else, and then they all work at it and my job then is to watch it and hopefully help anyone who wants it in between with those horses.”

City Of Troy remains a work in progress – as he always has been.

“He won three from three last year but wasn’t the finished article despite that and we knew he had little things that needed to be ironed out for him to show just how good he really was,” O’Brien says.

“But as I said these real good, top horses have so much ability that gets them such a long way, but to get them to be the finished article you have to help them to show things they can do and not do. That’s just the way it is.

“This horse is so natural and so powerful, so strong when he gets into that gallop it’s just to have him in a way where he can control himself a little bit. I suppose he’s been unique all the way along with what he’s been able to do with raw ability, that’s what he did at two, but before Newmarket we didn’t tweak him enough.

“He won the Derby and Ryan said he was as green as grass, and we knew Sandown was going to be another step and we were kind of happy we had a bit of time coming between Sandown and York and that’s where we are at the moment.

“We had two or three weeks gone by where we tweaked things a little bit and we think we have him landed fairly smoothly on the runway at the moment. There’s another bit to go but it took him that long to get down and land because he has so much ability really. It’s a very rare thing.”

Team work key to success

And those tweaks, discussions, helping to bring out the best in every horse under his care, are the bread and butter for O’Brien – and an aspect of the job that he thrives on.

“It’s what we love to do, it’s our hobby, passion and work all rolled into one. I suppose for us it’s to be working with everybody else who enjoys it and are so passionate about it. It’s what makes you get up every morning, for us it’s like going to a world championship every day.

“That’s the way it is, you’re watching, tweaking things and do your work and then when you see the work, you hope the things you’ve tweaked work and if it didn’t you have to tweak it back and discuss it with everyone else.

“They discuss it among themselves and that’s the joy and passion of it. Everyone is very much part of it, and I think that’s what makes Ballydoyle and Coolmore work. There are so many opinions involved in making the decisions, it starts with the lads who discuss it among themselves then those discussions join with us but they get all the information every single day and then at the end of the day they have the final decision.

“But so much stuff flows every single day, it’s hard to believe in such an easy way too. For us it’s unbelievable to be part of it.”

Expectations heading into York

So what is the man who knows him better than anyone else expecting to see from City Of Troy at York?

“We’re excited and looking forward to it and obviously there are so many variables we can control and so many that we can’t," he admits.

“We will try and control the ones that we think we can control and then hopefully it works on the day. That’s the harsh reality of it. We know he is like no other, we know he has this unbelievable power and will, speed and stamina but he’s very strong minded as well which obviously comes from Galileo.

“That raw aggression he has in him, we know it’s there, part of the make-up that makes him good, and obviously you’re never sure what’s going to happen.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next hour but we hope, we dream and the days when it comes off are a big relief. It’s nearly a surprise to us when they do because there are so many variables that can go against it.

“We’re always grateful when it does happen, grateful to the people who helped make it happen and for us, we’re grateful to the lads for supplying us with such horses that we can do this on a daily basis and supplying us with the place and people to bring everything together.

“It’s a unique situation really, we know nobody else in the world is in that position really.”

And does the belief that City Of Troy is the best horse he’s ever trained remain?

“He’s just a very different horse this horse, yes. He always was but obviously we have to help him show it to everybody else and that’s the reality of it. We’re just so lucky to have him.”

Here’ s hoping the Juddmonte International provides that platform. It’s bubbling away to become the race of the season, the perfect stage to produce a career-defining performance.

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