Photo:

Kaz Ishida / Eclipse Sportswire

One of the stars in Aidan O’Brien’s talented Breeders’ Cup contingent is City Of Troy, who is pre-entered in the Classic.

The 3-year-old Justify colt has won six of his seven career starts, and his last three races brought wins in the Epsom Derby, Coral Eclipse and Juddmonte International, all Group 1 and all on turf.

At a teleconference offered by the Breeders’ Cup on Wednesday, O’Brien explained why he opted to switch City Of Troy to dirt in the Classic.

“Obviously, he was by Justify so there was power, was a big chance that he would work on the dirt,” O’Brien said. “He’s a very brave heart. He has a very high cruising speed and tactically very quick. Obviously, we saw that he gets the Derby trip very well. And he was a horse we always dreamed about that maybe could be very competitive in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Obviously, we never won it before, but we were placed with some very good horses. So we always thought this horse was kind of like Giant’s Causeway, but just a little bit more class.”

O’Brien pre-entered 18 horses for the Breeders’ Cup, a record for trainers. He explained why he kept City Of Troy in training in England rather than sending him to California earlier. The colt worked in company on a synthetic surface at Southwell Racecourse to prepare.

“All we could do is is replicate a different surface, and we had horses that would take him in the first half of the work,” O’Brien said. “And we knew we weren’t going to have horses going to be able to take him the second half of the work anyway, because really, we didn’t want that to be too tough on him anyway. So really we thought it was as much as we could do, and we would have to take a lot of the other stuff on trust. The last thing we wanted to do was kind of wipe him out, or bottom out him, because he would have had a tough season here up to now, anyway. And he is only a 3-year-old, so we just have to be a little bit careful. We kind of looked under as many stones as we could safely.”

O’Brien also discussed Lake Victoria, his 2-year-old filly who is undefeated in four starts, all at six or seven furlongs, including two Group 1s. She is pre-entered in the Juvenile Fillies Turf going one mile.

“She is by Frankel,” O’Brien said. “Her dam was a very good sprinter. Obviously, it’s as far as she ever went. She’s an unusual filly, really. She won her maiden over seven and then she won a group race over seven in Newmarket, and then she went and won a Group 1 over seven in the Curragh, and then she dropped back to six for another Group 1. So very unusual what she has done.

“She’s a powerful filly. You would always imagine that a mile was within her compass. Obviously, it’s a fast mile in Del Mar, and she’s going to learn a lot, and we’re going to learn a lot about her. But she looks a very unusual filly at the moment, with everything she’s done. Her work is always extra special. And we’re looking forward to seeing her run as well. She’s going to learn a lot. We’re going to learn a lot about her as well.”

Another thing the Ireland-based O’Brien is looking forward to is Del Mar itself.

“If you lived in our climate, you’d only be looking forward to going to Del Mar. We don’t get much nice, good weather, like you do in a beautiful place, and that’s obviously a great racetrack. But it’s competitive, fiercely, and we wouldn’t expect anything different, and it is in America. So for us, it’s a new, different, exciting world, really. And we look forward to going and trying to compete, and obviously we are visitors. And obviously we feel very, very grateful to be accepted to go and try and compete really.”