City Of Troy may have to work like a Trojan to get Classic success

My race-going pal wanted to know would we head for last Friday’s Dundalk meeting. “O’Brien has a couple going in the big race”, he said.

I hadn’t been at any of the previous meetings on the winter schedule at the track. Dundalk Gaels, qualifying, and then preparing, for the county intermediate final held my attention, and there were also doors to be rapped.

I call Ben a race-going pal rather than a punting pal. Yes, he has the occasional flutter, but he’s more into breeding, and, more especially, the fortunes of the Aidan O’Brien-trained horses.

He has asked O’Brien to stand in for photos, shook his hand when he had a winner, and likes it most of all when Ryan Moore – ”the best jockey in the world”, he contends – has the mount. There’s never a chance that O’Brien would refuse a request, but Moore can be a wee bit cranky at times.

We headed out on Friday evening, and for me, it was good to renew a few acquaintances. The betting, however, was a tale of woe. Another one. During the evening Ben told me he was getting very nervous ahead of next weekend’s big Breeders’ Cup meeting in America.

“What’s wrong”, I asked. “It’s City Of Troy. He’s going in the Classic, and I’m just hoping he doesn’t get beaten.” (Actually, he said ‘beat’, which is par for the course for most of those living on the far side of the border.).

“Have you taken a bet on him?” “No. I just want him to win. Aidan says he's the best horse he’s ever trained, and I’d be very disappointed if he didn’t live up to it.” (“Aidan says” – you think they were on talking terms.)

For those whose interest in horse racing is confined to just having a bet each year on the Aintree Grand National, let me explain. The Breeders Cup meeting is the biggest in the world.

The Classic, worth oceans of dollars to the winner, is the principal race, and although Aidan O’Brien has had a number of winners at the meeting, he’s never won the big one.

The Ballydoyle wizard, arguably the world’s greatest trainer, has invested a lot in the preparation of City Of Troy for this race. To the point where the colt had a trial run at the English track, Southall, for a number of weeks.

To make the experience as Breeders’ Cup-like as possible, a set of American-style starting gates were transported over from Ballydoyle. A bell rung when the City Of Troy and some stablemates left the gate – just as it does in American – and the surface was reckoned to be similar to what the runners will encounter at the Del Mar course on Saturday.

Interest in the trial was such that hundreds turned up to see it, and when it was over, O’Brien, in true fashion, took time to sign autographs and pose for selfies for, it seemed, just about everyone. Anyway, the Classic goes ahead on Saturday night and can be viewed on one of the racing channels.

Back to Dundalk. The O’Brien runner in the big race finished second-last of 13, and of course, I was on, having taken advice from you know who. A consolation was that had I looked elsewhere I still wouldn’t have come up with the winner.

Ostraka went off at 66/1, having shown at 100/1 at one stage. He was as big as 200/1 on the exchanges. (No, I’m not going to bore non-racing readers by explaining what the exchanges are.)

The rest of the card had no respite. Unlike my father before me, I’m not a favs backer. (He used to follow the market-leaders over a cliff whenever he went racing at Dowdallshill, or at two other of his favourite tracks, the long-closed Baldoyle and Phoenix Park.)

While none of the seven races on the card had a winning fav, I still couldn’t nail a winner. But Ben got to see the O’Brien runner, and that made me happy. Delirious, in fact.