City Of Troy in a hail of kickback at Del Mar© Photo Healy Racing
Only once before in my lifetime can I recall hype around an American horse race to match the level we saw in the build up to last weekend’s Breeders’ Cup Classic.
The first time was the inaugural running of the Arlington Million back when I was a teenager in boarding school in the middle of nowhere in Co. Laois. This first million dollar race had captured the imagination of the world in 1981. RTÉ showed the race and just after returning from summer break, our entire school huddled around the one and only TV to watch a horse named John Henry win a thriller by the narrowest of margins from an ex-Irish horse called The Bart.
One of the main reasons that race sticks out so vividly in my memory to this day is that I had a friend in my class also named John Henry and the slagging he got afterwards was off the scale. Everywhere he went in the school for the rest of that year would be accompanied by kids mimicking the American commentator from Arlington Park with shouts of “It’s Johnnnnnn Henry.” It drove him mad!
Unfortunately, last Saturday’s race didn’t live up to the hype as City Of Troy’s audacious tilt at the Dirt Classic was as good as over as soon as the gates opened. It’s hard to calculate just how much of the hype around Saturday’s race emanated directly from Coolmore, but the one thing for certain is that it did their stallion’s prospects no harm to have his name in lights for so many weeks prior to starting his new career at stud in Ireland.
The result of the race itself also did no harm to the Coolmore Partners’ bottom line with their stakes in both the winner and second.
With the benefit of hindsight the Southwell excursion that City Of Troy made back in September now looks like a complete waste of both time and money from a performance perspective, although there was certainly a significant PR value to it. City Of Troy would probably have been better off travelling to America after the Juddmonte to take in a prep race on the dirt and acclimatise.
Overall, Aidan’s assertion that City Of Troy is the best he has ever trained doesn’t stack up with what we have seen on the track. He is the best European three-year-old this year, but strictly on ratings he never hit the heights of some of his stable’s illustrious predecessors.
It could actually be argued that Lake Victoria is potentially the best we have seen come out of Ballydoyle during Aidan’s tenure. Unbeaten in 5 races at two with Group One victories over 6 furlongs, 7 furlongs and a mile achieved in three different countries on varying ground conditions. If she improves at three we could be talking about a superstar.
Breeders’ Cup weekend started off with a bang from an Irish perspective with Ger Lyons (from my old alma mater) getting a well-deserved first success at the meeting when Magnum Force won the Juvenile Sprint on Friday night, the first leg of an Irish-trained treble on the card.
It will be a short winter for Lyons with some very talented three-year-olds to look forward to in the spring.
Aidan O’Brien’s disappointment with the flop of City Of Troy in the Classic will have been tempered by his Juvenile double the day before, which brought his Breeders’ Cup tally to a record-breaking 20 victories.
On the domestic front it was a rather similar story for Gordon Elliott who’s main Gold Cup hope Gerri Colombe trailed in a remote third in Down Royal’s Champion Chase, a race he had won last year, but the stable still made a bright start to the new season with six winners at Down Royal and also added a Grade Two victory at Wetherby on Saturday.
Colin Keane, who partnered his second Breeders’ Cup winner on Friday night, was crowned Champion Jockey in Ireland for the fifth successive season at the Curragh on Sunday with a season total of 103 winners. Billy Lee’s 95 wins would have won him either of the last two Championships, but he must again settle for the runner-up position. It is noteworthy that Lee got within 8 wins of Keane off 129 less rides this season.
James Ryan was able to maintain his two-winner lead in the three-way battle for the Apprentice Championship at the Curragh on Sunday to lift the trophy. The 5ft 11in teenager rode 33 winners for 16 different trainers through the season.
Aidan O’Brien was unsurprisingly crowned Champion Trainer for the 27th time with 131 domestic winners and €6.5 million in prize money, but on this occasion he only managed to win 3 of Ireland’s 12 Group One races.
Lastly, it was very sad to hear of the passing of both Alastair Down and Captain Con Power in recent days. Both were masters of their chosen disciplines and brought immense pleasure to generations of sports fans. May they both rest in peace.
