City Of Troy arriving at Southwell with his groom David Hickey© Photo Healy Racing
City Of Troy galloping around Southwell last Friday was fascinating on many levels. Firstly, it showed us once again the unrivalled attention to detail and meticulous preparation that goes into these top class horses at Ballydoyle.
For those operating in the lower reaches of the sport it must be soul-destroying to see how far removed the Ballydoyle setup is from their everyday grind. Those dealing with crooked-legged or bad-winded low grade handicappers are having to expend all their energy simply trying to keep their horses sound, while in the rarefied atmosphere of Ballydoyle, where money is no object, there is time to muse over the subjective benefits of simulating a trip to the Breeders’ Cup Classic six weeks out from the race itself.
What would the Southwell trip have cost Ballydoyle? Transporting five horses from Tipperary to Southwell, plus bringing in American style starting stalls for the day, never mind all the staff and jockeys that accompanied them wouldn’t have been cheap. There couldn’t have been much change out of fifty grand for a one minute and 40 seconds piece of work.
That said, if City Of Troy does win the Breeders Cup Classic the upside for connections will be extraordinary. Aside from the monetary value, I’d imagine everyone connected with both Ballydoyle and Coolmore will view this as the pinnacle of their achievements.
Southwell Racecourse certainly made the most of the day on Friday and both Aidan and Ryan Moore seemed happy to play along with the hype surrounding the event, which had attracted a race meeting sized crowd.
If City Of Troy does manage to win at Del Mar I doubt we will get to see him back in Ireland, which is a real pity because at that stage he would be a proper superstar of the sport. A victory in the Classic will more than likely send him straight off to stud in America, rather than coming home for a ticker tape parade through the streets of Fethard or Rosegreen.
Changing the subject, the marathon Listowel Harvest Festival is the focus this week and once again Pat Healy and his team have pulled a major rabbit out of the hat by announcing that Ryan Moore will visit the island racecourse for the first time on Tuesday with four booked rides.
Pat Healy convinced Kerry native Oisin Murphy to take time out of his busy schedule to ride at the meeting last year and his powers of persuasion must have kicked into overdrive to get Ryan Moore to agree to be the centre of attention this Tuesday.
Healy is obviously a very hard man to say no to and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Frankie Dettori dislocated his shoulder on purpose at Aqueduct last week so he had a readymade excuse in case Pat came calling again.
