It would be fair to say that leading Irish trainer Aidan O’Brien is often guilty of being a little over-enthusiastic when he discusses the horses in his stable.
In fairness to O’Brien, there is never any malice in the comments he makes, but a burning desire to open up his heart and mind to the masses.
He undoubtedly made a rod for his own back towards the end of last season when he described City Of Troy as the best two-year-old he had ever trained.
With the horse’s owners suggesting he could become their version of the legendary Frankel the pressure was on when he made his seasonal reappearance in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket.
City of Troy was backed as if defeat was out of the question, but ran an absolute stinker to leave O’Brien shaking his head in disbelief.
However, he refused to lose the faith and was rewarded as City of Troy demonstrated his class by winning the Epsom Derby and Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.
He is now set to tackle the Juddmonte International Stakes at York, and is rated as the odds-on favorite to emerge victorious in the Group 1 contest.
Punters eager to play up their winnings from his last two runs will be pleased to find plenty of horse racing betting sites to choose from as they search for the best odds on the race.
Bookmakers are reluctant to take too many chances with a horse that O’Brien thinks is a world beater, although his defeat at Newmarket remains a cause for concern.
O’Brien took responsibility for that performance by saying he did not prepare him properly for the race and a similar misstep could favour the bookies.
The trainer claims he learned plenty from that defeat and the adjustments he has made to the horse’s training regime appear to have worked the oracle.
O’Brien believes the horse still has plenty of room for improvement and is confident he will eventually live up to the hype surrounding him.
“He won three from three last year but wasn’t the finished article despite that and we knew he had little things that needed to be ironed out for him to show just how good he really was,” O’Brien said.
“But as I said these real good, top horses have so much ability that gets them such a long way, but to get them to be the finished article you have to help them to show things they can do and not do. That’s just the way it is.
“This horse is so natural and so powerful, so strong when he gets into that gallop it’s just to have him in a way where he can control himself a little bit.
“I suppose he’s been unique all the way along with what he’s been able to do with raw ability, that’s what he did at two, but before Newmarket we didn’t tweak him enough.”
Jockey Ryan Moore has ridden City of Troy in each of his six runs to date and will be back aboard for the International Stakes at York.
Moore noted that the horse still had plenty to learn despite running out an easy winner of The Derby and made similar comments following his victory in the Coral-Eclipse.
O’Brien says they have spent the last few weeks tweaking more things with the horse and thinks he now has him in tip-top shape ahead of his next outing at York.
Having given City of Troy such a big billing at the end of his two-year-old campaign, O’Brien acknowledges that expectations are extremely high.
“We’re excited and looking forward to it and obviously there are so many variables we can control and so many that we can’t,” O’Brien added.
“We will try and control the ones that we think we can control and then hopefully it works on the day. That’s the harsh reality of it.
“We know he is like no other – we know he has this unbelievable power and will, speed and stamina, but he’s very strong minded as well which obviously comes from Galileo.
“That raw aggression he has in him, we know it’s there, part of the make-up that makes him good, and obviously you’re never sure what’s going to happen.”
“He’s just a very different horse this horse, yes. He always was but obviously we have to help him show it to everybody else and that’s the reality of it. We’re just so lucky to have him.”
Epsom Derby runner-up Ambiente Friendly and Royal Ascot scorer Calandagan are among City of Troy’s main rivals at York.
Their connections will be eager to halt the City Of Troy bandwagon, but O’Brien’s charge is strongly fancied to add another Group 1victory to his CV.
