Johannesburg to City Of Troy: Three Generations On and Back to the Dirt

DEL MAR, USA — October 2001 was a sobering time to be in New York. Some seven weeks on from the devastating attack on the World Trade Center, the city was shrouded in sadness and America was a nation united in grief for the thousands who lost their lives on 9/11.

Horseracing, often referred to as the great triviality, doesn't usually feel like that to those who work in the sport, but it did feel trivial, almost intrusive, to be at Belmont that year for what was a first visit to the Breeders' Cup for this correspondent. 

There arguably could not have been a more emotive race call than “Tiznow wins it for America” as that great horse claimed, by a nose, his second Breeders' Cup Classic, seeing off the British-trained Sakhee, who had won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe just three weeks earlier. The year before, Tiznow had thwarted the efforts of Giant's Causeway, who would have given his trainer Aidan O'Brien the most audacious entrance to Breeders' Cup folklore had he not gone down by just a neck that day. 

Instead, on October 27, 2001, Johannesburg became the first Breeders' Cup winner for both O'Brien and jockey Mick Kinane when winning the Juvenile on dirt, with the widely-touted odds-on favourite Officer some five lengths behind him in fifth. 

Only one horse in the first three generations of Johannesburg's pedigree had been bred outside North America, but this was an Irish victory, and one which set the tone of what was to come from Ballydoyle. Eighteen Breeders' Cup wins later, we find O'Brien again seeking that elusive victory in the Classic, this time with Johannesburg's great grandson, City Of Troy, who is just one of 11 runners for the trainer at this year's championship.

O'Brien has trained one member in each of the first three generations of City Of Troy's family, Johannesburg being joined by the colt's dam Together Forever (Ire) and her sire Galileo (Ire). The latter was of course present the day of Johannesburg's great triumph, finishing sixth of 13 in the Classic behind Tiznow. It was the last time we'd see Galileo on the racecourse but, boy, have his exploits since then ensured that he will never be forgotten.

What, then, does O'Brien recall about that first triumphant Breeders' Cup meeting, with two horses who would become so genetically entwined in one of this year's most intriguing runners?

“It was very special, and that was the most incredible of all,” he said of that breakthrough win. “Johannesburg was the most unbelievable horse because he ran in four countries and won four different Group 1s, and to come out here and win on the dirt first time was amazing. And he dropped in, and they said you couldn't drop in and come from where he did, but he followed them round and Mick [Kinane] gave him an incredible ride. He just quickened past them.”

Twenty-three years later, O'Brien and the Ballydoyle first eleven are back at the Breeders' Cup and the questions in most minds are how well City Of Troy will break to handle the early pace and, if needing to be dropped in, how he will cope with the kickback on his first time racing on dirt. 

Tuesday morning saw the O'Brien squadron unleashed from quarantine to trot a lap of the dirt in their customary snake-like fashion before turning for a steady canter back round the other way. Though the team includes the Group 1 winners Luxembourg (Ire), Content (Ire), Ylang Ylang (GB) and Whistlejacket (Ire) there is of course the greatest focus on City Of Troy. The son of Justify was easy to pick out, not just because of his yellow saddle cloth but for the branded jacket carried by rider Rachel Richardson. He has one race left to run but the stallion campaign is already under way.

“He's just had his first vet check and everything seems to be fine,” O'Brien reported after watching his team exercise, and that's more than can be said for his erstwhile favourite for the Melbourne Cup, Jan Brueghel (Ire), who has been withdrawn by Racing Victoria stewards on veterinary advice. 

Of the situation in Australia, he said, “There comes a point when it becomes ridiculous. The horsemen and women have been taken out of the picture. In this part of the world, it's horsemen who decide.”

Returning to the Breeders' Cup Classic, O'Brien said that bringing City Of Troy to America had been the plan before he had ever set foot on a racecourse. 

“That was always the dream,” he said. “It was the dream about getting Justify originally. The dream for us was to have a dual-purpose stallion, who could produce runners on grass and dirt.”

In that regard Justify has justified the outlay, though he was himself untried on grass. The question now will be how City Of Troy can cope with racing on the surface on which his father landed his Triple Crown. Justify's best turf son will attempt to do what no Derby winner has done before from stall three.

“In is probably better than out,” said his trainer of the draw. “I suppose the danger when you are in is are you going to be quick enough away? We don't know that. We have done everything we can do. When he ran the way he did in the Guineas, we had to go back and restructure a lot of stuff. We had to go back up slowly through the gears because we were thinking of the Derby. We had to get him to relax and slow down and, at the same time, we had to be preparing him for the Classic for the whole year.”

He continued, “At York, we went a little bit forward with him. He is very happy to be forward but we knew if we did that in the Derby, we would have been in trouble. We were very happy with what he did at York but he still wasn't opened up properly. That's why we went to Southwell, rather than an Irish Champion. We wanted the pace to be very strong but we didn't want him to be in front. Southwell was all about the first part of the work rather than the second. He was very comfortable following a very strong pace. 

“We think we have him prepared to go forward. Whether he is quick enough to go forward from that slot, in this type of race – I'm not sure.

“He can only break as quick as he is prepared to break, and when that happens Ryan will make his own mind up where is going to sit. We think we have done as much as we can to ask him to break well, it's going to be very interesting.”

Out on the track in second place in the Ballydoyle string behind Luxembourg, the trace-clipped City Of Troy sweated up a little, as did Diego Velazquez behind him, but O'Brien was not concerned. 

“I'd rather they were sweating than not because it means they're up for it, rather than coming here and floating around,” he noted. “The Classic is going to be ferocious and he is going to have to be on his game. If he is in any way laidback you'll get wiped out, so I'd rather he was a little bit edgy.

“It won't be a problem. His canters will ramp up a little bit each day – they'll never really open up but they will ramp up a little bit more. I'd be very happy with what we saw today.”

And after Giant's Causeway's near miss almost a quarter of a century ago, how much does it remain a burning desire to add that particular Grade I race to the many that have already been ticked off around the world by O'Brien?

“If we didn't do it we'd probably say forever 'why didn't we do it?'” he said. “Obviously we fail all the time but if we don't fail we don't get better, and you always learn more from your failures than your wins.”