City Of Troy comes through Southwell gallop with flying colours

City Of Troy came home a long way clear of four stablemates in his highly-anticipated racecourse gallop at Southwell on Friday.

The son of Justify has won six of his seven starts for Aidan O’Brien, who was keen to give his superstar colt a taste of an artificial surface ahead of a tilt at the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

While Southwell’s Tapeta track is very different to the dirt he will encounter at Del Mar on November 2, the Ballydoyle team did their best to ensure City Of Troy otherwise got as close to a raceday experience as possible in Nottinghamshire, flying over a set of American starting stalls.

After being paraded in front of a sizeable and enthusiastic crowd, the three-year-old was walked in front of the stands before cantering to the one-mile start and being loaded into stall three under big-race jockey Ryan Moore, with Congo River (Brett Doyle) in one, Democracy (Wayne Lordan) in two, Master Of The Hunt (Rachel Richardson) in four and Edwardian (Dean Gallagher) in gate five.

Although City Of Troy made much of the running when winning last month’s Juddmonte International at York in a record time, it was notable more waiting tactics were adopted in this thorough workout, with Moore settling him at the rear of the quintet while Congo River set a sound gallop out in front.

As Congo River and Democracy began to falter, the Derby hero moved ominously alongside before the home turn before being pushed clear by Moore, powering through the line to finish in splendid isolation.

Moore said: “He achieved what the objective was, and it’s about six weeks now (to Del Mar).

“I’ve never won it (Breeders’ Cup Classic), but he’s an unusual horse and he showed how good he is at York. If he can transfer that level of ability to the dirt, then you’d like to think he’d be in the mix.”