John Magnier was in mischievous form at Sandown after he and his wife Sue had joined the wider Coolmore team for celebratory photographs with their Derby and Eclipse winner City Of Troy.
It has been well documented how important this colt is to the operation: the European champion two-year-old of 2023, he is by the Triple Crown winner Justify, who was recruited at vast expense to stand at Coolmore's Ashford Stud in Kentucky. For that stallion to prove himself adept at siring top-class runners on both dirt and turf would be the bloodstock equivalent of owning a licence to print money.
Participating in what was, by his standards, a lengthy interview on Racing TV, Magnier said, “There's no point in us talking any more about this horse. This horse now has to do it himself.”
He added with a laugh, “It's like his clothes are off and he's in the bed, so it's up to him.”
Magnier admitted that City Of Troy's hard-fought win, by a length over Al Riffa (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), wasn't quite the dazzling performance that had been anticipated from the 1/4 favourite.
He said, “It wasn't what we were expecting, to be honest, but we are not making excuses: you don't need to when a horse wins a race.
“A quarter of the field was taken out because of the ground and he really is a good-moving horse. We posted a video of him working in the last few days and it's quite extraordinary how he moves.”
He continued, “The year is long and I would just like to see him really run on his ground. But, look, he's only been beaten once in his life and we're complaining, so that will tell you what we think about him.”
Of the excitement surrounding City Of Troy, he added, “It emanates from Aidan [O'Brien] and Ballydoyle, really, what they think of him and what they see in the morning. And that's why we published that video – we don't do that sort of thing, and I'm not a social media-type person. But it's just incredible and we wanted people to see it.”
Last year, the team's Derby winner Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) closed out his season with victory in the Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita. With the Japan Cup under consideration for that horse over a possible return to California for a tilt at the Breeders' Cup Classic, could the latter be a suitable option for City Of Troy to show his versatility?
“Only God knows that; I can't answer that one,” Magnier said. “All I know is that we've tried it on several occasions. We tried it with Galileo and it didn't work. We tried it with Giant's Causeway and it nearly did. We hit the crossbar with Declaration Of War. We all enjoy having a go and seeing if we can try to do something that's a bit out of the ordinary. Whatever happens, we'll keep trying to do it.”
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