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City Of Troy after working at Southwell

David Ord on why City Of Troy's Breeders' Cup bid matters so much

By David Ord

15:42 · SAT September 21, 2024

Did you find yourself watching City Of Troy’s Southwell workout on Friday and asking why does this matter so much?

Why have four or five times more people chosen to go the track to see a piece of work than would attend a full race meeting had it been staged at the same venue on the same afternoon?

Why did every media organisation – ourselves included – send journalists and AV teams to Nottinghamshire to capture the action and reaction?

Maybe we’ve all bought into the Ballydoyle dream of winning one of the very few major worldwide prizes to have eluded their grasp during a remarkable period of domination?

Maybe it’s the horse himself who has captured the imagination – from the 2000 Guineas blow-out to Derby redemption and then winning ugly in the Coral-Eclipse before showcasing his full power and prowess in the Juddmonte International?

Or maybe it’s because the 2024 Flat season desperately needs an autumn showstopper before it fizzles out in the November rain.

We’re now at the time of the year when things start coming at you thick and fast. As I write this we’re preparing for the Ayr Gold Cup and a heavy ground Mill Reef Stakes.

Next week Newmarket stage the Middle Park, Cheveley Park and Cambridgeshire.

The Arc is around the corner as are QIPCO British Champions Day and the Cheltenham Showcase Meeting which signals the start of the switch to the winter game and all the highs, lows and challenges that brings.

And this Flat season, that promised so much at various stages, is just struggling for momentum.

Notable Speech is a brilliant winner of the QIPCO 2000 Guineas

We thought the three-year-old milers might provide it. Notable Speech beat Rosallion in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, the runner-up gaining his revenge in the St James’s Palace having won the Irish 2000 en-route.

But Richard Hannon's charge hasn’t been seen since and is out for the season along with stablemate Haatem who ducked the Berkshire showpiece for the Jersey Stakes later in the week but picked up an injury on the way to post in the Prix Jacques Le Marois on his next intended start.

Notable Speech bounced back to win the Sussex Stakes but bombed out again in the Moulin last time, a strange race in which Triballist was granted an easy lead and never came back to them.

Charyn, who will be champion miler should he win the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes next month, was second. He’s danced every dance you’ expect of an older miler this term, it’s just others haven’t.

The sprinters have been beating themselves all season, well almost. Inisherin and Mill Stream have had their moments but the most compelling case to wear the crown is being made by Bradsell who thundered down the straight tracks at York and the Curragh to beat Believing in the Nunthorpe and Flying Five.

Bradsell wins the Flying Five

There are plenty who feel the second was unlucky in both given she found herself racing on a different part of the track to the winner. But watch the races again. Isn’t Bradsell just quicker through the early and mid sections than she is? Won’t she always be playing catch-up even if she’s boxed right next to her freewheeling rival?

Perhaps but at least, they’ve added interest and to some extent clarity to the division.

That’s not needed where the stayers are concerned. Kyprios regained his heavyweight title at Ascot and strengthened the grip on it at Goodwood and the Curragh subsequently.

A remarkable horse and a remarkable training performance from the O'Brien team to bring him back to this level. But he’s dominating a very shallow pool.

The two-year-olds are about to sit their major examinations but heading into them has any colt or filly really excited you?

Bedtime Story did with the way she won the Chesham at Royal Ascot but not in two subsequent victories in calmer waters before bombing out when finishing lame at the Irish Champions Festival.

Even after that the fillies division looks deeper than the colts. Babouche is three from three having won the Phoenix Stakes, Fairy Godmother looked good in the Albany but hasn’t raced since while Lake Victoria stretched her own unbeaten record when winning the Moyglare Stud Stakes in which Bedtime Story disappointed.

Lots of people liked the run of Red Letter in fourth that day too.

The Lion In Winter wins well under Ryan Moore

As for the colts, well the highest-rated on Timeform ratings is Acomb winner The Lion In Winter. He looks the best of the Ballydoyle brigade that have seen the racecourse so far. Whistlejacket and Ides Of March might the fastest too after Henri Matisse’s bubble seemingly burst in the National Stakes.

The big juvenile clashes are hopefully still to come but it’s the middle-distance ranks that leave you with a real of feeling of what if?

Auguste Rodin won the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes but not the Tattersalls Gold Cup, King George or Irish Champion Stakes. He’s reportedly bound for the Japan Cup with a remarkable domestic career of highs and lows over.

We won’t see City Of Troy on this continent again either meaning he’ll never meet Economics, the Irish Champion hero.

Nor will he lock horns with White Birch who beat Auguste Rodin in the spring but hasn‘t been seen on a racecourse since.

Calandagan, second behind COT as I probably shouldn’t call him at York, has had a light campaign. He’s barred from running in the Arc along with fellow gelding and runaway King George winner Goliath.

We haven’t sighted Passenger after he looked ready for take-off when winning the Huxley Stakes at Chester, King Of Steel hasn't run all season and is sidelined and in Ireland as connections wait to decide whether he’ll race on or head to the stallion barn.

We have an Arc where they bet 4/1 the field in a renewal robbed for various reasons of at least five or six potential headline acts.

The QIPCO British Champion Stakes could provide a clash between Economics and Calandagan that would light up Ascot if the weather gods play ball. But it is an if.

Vauban and Absurde head to Melbourne again for the race that stops a nation and could be joined by Tower Of London, Jan Brueghel and Illinois depending on how the veterinary checks go.

That’s an interesting prospect – but nothing this autumn – or season – is as tantalising as the thought of City Of Troy squaring off with the best America has to offer at Del Mar.

He’ll be O’Brien’s 16th runner in the Classic on dirt. Giant’s Causeway went agonisingly close to winning the race in 2000 but others to have tried and failed include the likes of Galileo, Hawk Wing and So You Think.

Henrythenavigator was touched off by Raven’s Pass in a 2008 renewal run on a synthetic surface at Santa Anita that the European raiders relished. It was soon replaced.

City Of Troy has always been different according to his trainer and maybe he has that missing ingredient to get the job done.

There’s hope in the pedigree, he’s a son of Justify after all, and in that long, raking stride and high cruising speed.

The 2024 season has been one when we’ve been holding out for a hero. The current Ballydoyle poster boy rode to the rescue at Epsom, Sandown and York.

Now he heads for his biggest test.

He’s three pounds clear on Timeform ratings but we’ve seen before how European form can mean little once the bell rings, the stalls open and the dirt starts flying.

But if the 2024 Flat season is to be remembered for one, magical, moment, it’s likely to be City Of Troy fending off the closers down the stretch on the first Saturday in November.

That’s why Southwell on Friday, stage-managed and set-up ideally for the star to shine as it had to be, mattered.

It was another step on that road to the Classic and it can only be good for the sport that so many seemingly want to ride it too.

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