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O’Brien would have been better off working him before racing at Laytown rather than bringing him over to Southwell.
Cork, I was thinking about that the other day.
I think if I was training a horse for a Classic, I’d fly over to the the hosting track and get a feeling for the surface under foot. I’d then walk the nearest most suitable beach and train the horse up the section which most closely replicated the racing surface.
Ballydoyle must have their own dirt strip I would think. But they were never gonna work the princeling god on it up something else’s tail to get a good facial sandblasting just to see what happened.
greenasgrass, You would think that for an outfit as obsessed with the race as Coolmore are.
I’d doubt they have one though as most horses they send over don’t act on the surface at all.
If Willie Mullins had a horse capable of running in it, you can bet he’d find a way to get a top performance from it.
Aidan, while very good, isn’t on the same level as Mullins or Vincent O’Brien.
No stone left unturned…..except the two big arsed ones sitting directly in front of your doorstep that said in big bold words: LEARN HOW TO START FAST and DIRT EXPERIENCE REQUIRED.
Southwell was a perfectly orchestrated PR stunt that meant less than didly squart in relation to a preparation for the BC Classic…..all in all it was about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
A valiant effort which ended in failure, even if the effort had stud value as a motive rather than any Corinthian virtue. Don’t think even STS (the GOAT) would have fared any better.
Good point about the jackets earlier in thread , they always look good and they get new ones each big meet . Ive had my jacket few years , id still wear it , can always tape over the COT bit .
How many stallions does Ballydoyle have to produce each intake to meet kpi. COT and JB two off top my head the 3yos this year .This was always the most likely outcome – and yet the UK media were convinced he could go close. Once again proving themselves to be probably the worst section/ least knowledgeable of the UK sports media – and on the weekend one of their greats left us.
Rishi Persad made an even bigger fool of himself than usual, if that is possible. Nick Luck said he was more with the horse than against.
OK, it is a game of opinions. But on what was the opinion City Of Troy could win the Classic based? It seems to me it was because the hacks stupidly believed O’Brien’s claim the horse is the best he has trained. He isn’t – according to Timeform he is about the 20th best he has had (21st if you include Istabraq) ;-).
They also believed the American dirt horses were a poor bunch, ignoring that a) they were probably far better than they had been led to believe, and b) they had an enormous advantage in having raced on dirt for their whole career.
I do wonder whether they were just going through the motions with COT. If Coolmore / AOB really believed him the best he’s ever trained, then they would’ve proven it by keeping COT in training. Once the announcement was made to retire at the end of the season – never taking on the likes of Calandagan, White Birch, Goliath and Economics again… By instead going for Breeders Cup dirt Classic glory as his final race… The Classic was the easy option – to preserve the hype whatever happened. Doubt they ever believed he’d win it – had they truly believed he was going to win it there would not have been an announcement of standing at stud in Ireland.
Value Is EverythingThe American Classic bunch were ok but as Classic standards go weren’t any better than that. Timeform have rated the winner’s performance on 125. That’s the same as Economics and 1 lb below Notable Speech at their bests and 5 lbs below City Of Troy. Fierceness ran below form – no doubt due to the pace – his best is 127.
Value Is EverythingI think a lot of the UK media were of the belief that because Aidan can train a horse(s) that can blow out spectacularly in the 2000g only to come back and then win the Derby next time out that he was more than capable of pulling this feat off too………of course they all seemed to collectively forget or ignore that those achievements were done with turf horses running on turf.
Dirt is an altogether entirely different proposition that with the exception of the odd few horses is something that European turf horse are simple ill equipt to deal with and perform accordingly. Dirt kickback is second nature to US dirt horses as that is all they have known their whole racing life – they are trained to be able to fly from the stalls and have the basic speed to get a position early….two skills that are not greatly needed in European races (unless you are a sprinter and/or racing at Chester).
Had the roles been reversed and a US dirt horse that was champion 2 yr old but had bombed out in the Kentucky Derby but the went on to win the Preakness and Belmont Stakes (only for connections to take leave of their senses) and decide to rock up at Longchamp for a testing ground Arc (because the horse was sired by an Arc winner) you can be dam sure he wouldn’t have been favourite for it and would likely be double figure odds to even make the frame.
Common sense took another holiday with many of those media peeps that were happy to be spoon fed Aidan’s hyperbole on this matter over what is a very good horse for sure but on form ratings hasn’t come close to living up to the lofty reputation his trainer labelled him with…..I do feel sorry for the horse in that respect and to slightly amend a famous line/quote from Top Gun:
“Troy, your trainer’s ego is writing cheques your body can’t cash”
As i said above, ive never had a liability like that last night, laying to lose and to unplace 2/3 never had 4 unfortunately, i still havent come down from it tbh, i dont think there will ever be a greater place lay like there was last night
I love obrien as a trainer, i think moore is incredible and id say i probably do like the general coolmore domination, over say a godolphin one
But how is it possible to talk a horse into fav for the BC classic lol
Unbelievable stuff
If he was the best ever, they should have given him a dirt season asa 4 year old to prove it.
Ginger I don’t think Aidan took the easy option at all. I don’t see why other than regression being a reason why he wouldn’t beat those you mention if running as a 4 year old.
Blackbeard to conquer the World
Race was over as soon as he came put the gate He slipped out of the gate then was behind and didnt enjoy the kick back.
He hated itVF x
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