Photo:

Andrew Parker / Eclipse Sportswire

City Of Troy’s last public gallop before traveling to the Breeders’ Cup Classic reportedly will attract 1,500 fans to Southwell Racecourse. They will be there Friday afternoon to see the world’s top-rated turf horse
train on a synthetic track for the $7 million dirt race at Del
Mar.

“Please note that a single gallop, which will take no more
than a few minutes to complete, will take place,” a notice on the Southwell website
said. “The exact start time is currently (to be confirmed) between 3 and 4 p.m.”
That would be 10-11 a.m. EDT.

Fair odds: See where Ed DeRosa puts City Of Troy.

The crowd may not be the 10,000 or more who poured into Saratoga
to see Triple Crown winner American Pharoah gallop the day before he lost the
2015 Grade 1 Travers. But the number has exceeded the expectations of management
at Southwell, where admission will be free.

“Certainly more than we were expecting,” clerk of the course
John Holliday told Racing Post. “We have 1,200 people booked in already
with tickets, and we’re expecting quite a few walk-ups, so it could be nearer
1,500 by the time we get to Friday.”

City Of Troy is a four-time Group 1 winner whose current
three-race streak includes the Epsom Derby (G1) on June 1, the Eclipse (G1) on July
6 and the International (G1) on Aug. 21. The 3-year-old Justify colt is
training up to the Breeders’ Cup. To help him make the transition from turf to
dirt, he is being shipped first from his Coolmore home base in Ireland to train
this week on one of only three synthetic tracks in England.

“We want to give him the best chance we can of being at his
best for the Classic, and we feel that bringing him away for a day at Southwell
will do just that,” trainer Aidan O’Brien told Racing Post.

Ahead of Friday’s one-mile gallop, the horse’s Coolmore ownership
team is footing the bill for an American-style starting gate with assistant
starters, an equine ambulance, veterinarians and as many as five workmates to
be at Southwell, all in hopes of replicating the U.S. experience.

City Of Troy’s 7: 6-0-0 record and US$3,028,555 in purse
earnings have come entirely in turf races, including one in Ireland and six in
England. In futures betting in Great Britain, he is the 3-1 favorite at Bet365
to win the Nov. 2 Classic.

O’Brien, who has 18 Breeders’ Cup victories, never has won with
his 17 previously starters in the Classic. On his first try he finished second with
Giant’s Causeway in 2000 and then second again with Henrythenavigator in 2008.
O’Brien trained Declaration of War to a third-place finish in 2013. He has not
had a starter in the Classic since Mendelssohn came in fifth in 2018.