Aidan O’Brien is planning a remarkable Pan-Pacific programme for star colts City Of Troy and Auguste Rodin to define their illustrious careers.
City Of Troy, the spectacular winner of the Betfred Derby last month, returns to action on Saturday for the first time since his Epsom heroics at Sandown in the Coral-Eclipse. He is a horse whose profile and ability has captured the imagination of racing fans.
Stablemate Auguste Rodin, whose CV glitters with six Group One successes, was last seen winning the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and is currently being prepared for a crack at the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at the same course on July 27.
But O’Brien is a master of thinking about long-term targets and if all goes to plan in the coming months, City Of Troy will end up running in the £6million Breeders Cup Classic in Del Mar on November 2 with Auguste Rodin potentially contesting the £4million Japan Cup in Tokyo three weeks later.
This is hugely significant as no European horse has won the Japan Cup since 2005 and no British horse has contested the event since before the Coronavirus pandemic.
O’Brien has not won either of these iconic events but the fact he has them in mind shows the esteem in which he holds the horses and the boundaries he is prepared to push to give them a possibilities to take their legacies to different levels.
It had been suggested that City Of Troy could potentially run in America at the end of August in the Travers Stakes as a warm-up for the Breeders Cup Classic but O’Brien is now inclined to keep the three-year-old in Europe through the summer for races at York and Leopardstown.
He would then consider the prospect of taking City Of Troy – who will face seven rivals at Sandown on Saturday – to Southwell, in Nottinghamshire, to gallop around their all-weather track. It is a fascinating development and one that will eagerly followed.
‘Everything has been good since Epsom with ‘Troy’ and we are looking forward to it,’ said O’Brien. ‘I’m sure the lads (his owners, Coolmore) will have an eye on The Breeders Cup Classic for him at the end of the year. They are happy to expose their horses and they aren’t afraid to travel them or get beat.
‘They are always prepared to let them compete that is the beauty of sport. We will see what is going to happen. Auguste has already won at the Breeders Cup (last year) so he could be a Japan Cup horse. This is what we are thinking in our heads.’
