Interview with Aidan O'Brien After City of Troy's Work at Southwell September 20, 2024

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00:00Well ladies and gentlemen, as promised, I'm joined by Aidan O'Brien, welcome to Southwell first of all.

00:06Thanks Simon, this is a pleasure and privilege for us to come and we're so grateful to everybody for

00:12making this day happen and being such a success. So grateful to everyone for providing the atmosphere,

00:19the track was beautiful, everything, all the facilities, yeah so we feel very privileged

00:24to be here really amongst you all. Well you've got quite a fan club here, I'm not sure whether

00:28it's yours or the horses to be honest. I'd say there's no doubt it's the horses so thanks

00:32everybody for coming. He's a unique horse, we always thought he was and we've tried to do our

00:38best for him to show that he's something different. Obviously we've tried to prepare him for the

00:42classic, we've never won it, we know how tough it is. When he came along we felt that he was the

00:48horse that could make it happen and obviously there's never any guarantee about anything but

00:53we felt if we looked under every stone we had a good chance. We had great success with horses

00:57coming here and running well in the classic and the lads slowed up the surface today which

01:02was brilliant and it made it a bit closer to dirt so it was tough, it was never going to be

01:08I suppose to look at it, over impressive but we were very happy, Brian was very happy,

01:13all the, Brett Dean, Rachel, Wayne, they're all very happy with the work so it was even

01:20pace and he stretched out well and hopefully he'll come out of it and no I just look forward

01:25to the British Cup with him now. Well you have great attention to detail and one of the more

01:30important details I think today was the the use of the American style stalls and the bell,

01:35did that go to your expectation? It did yeah absolutely, we have it a long time now, obviously

01:40when we were going to America our horses weren't breaking very well and they were losing two and

01:44three lengths at the stalls and it was making it just very difficult so the lads went over and they

01:48got the American stalls and it was brilliant, the lads loaded them up perfect and he jumped

01:54on the bell and it was very quick, we knew the other four were going to be forced a bit stronger

01:59early because we didn't want him to be in front but at the same time Ryan said he was going to go

02:03forward because when he went to America he was going to go forward, that was the way it was going

02:06to be so it all worked perfect really we think. And as you say it's the whole process isn't it,

02:11it's leaving Ballydoil, it's the trip over on the plane, it's the whole experience that really

02:17counts towards the big day? Yeah I think so like obviously the trip, the day away but I think the

02:23big thing was the track and the surface, it's fast, it's left-handed and it's flat and the surface

02:30was more demanding than any surface we could get around other than grass obviously you know so

02:37we think it was the whole thing and yeah so listen we obviously at the end of every day when things

02:44don't happen we always re-dig things and look and there's always some little thing we miss so we

02:48think we ticked most of the boxes now so as many as we we've ticked all the boxes that we think we

02:53should have ticked but that doesn't mean that you will have success but at least if you fail

02:59that way you can feel like you failed doing your best you know so listen we'll try it.

03:05And what will happen with the horse over the next five or six weeks? Yeah he'll have a day off

03:09tomorrow and then he'll start riding out again, Andrew and Dave, he'll have to be happy with him and

03:15then obviously Rachel writes him out and writes him in all his work and his momentum and it

03:20builds from there and he'll work once or twice a week depending on how he is and then I think the

03:25plan is that he will go to America maybe six or seven eight days before, he'll canter on the dirt

03:31three or four days and that'll be it really, he'll probably do some paddock work, he'll probably do

03:35some stalls work and hopefully, it's like a day in a racehorse's lifetime is very long

03:42so he's a lot of days to get through so we from now we'll try and mark down the days hopefully

03:46he'll go back be fine tomorrow first and then we'll go after that. You've tried Aidan to add this

03:52wonderful race to your tremendous CV for a lot of years, you've had some near misses of course with

03:57Giant's Causeway who galloped here, Henry the Navigator, how does this horse compare?

04:03Could he be your best chance so far? Yeah he is and we thought he was, obviously we thought he's

04:09like Giant's Causeway but he's quicker, so Giant's Causeway went very close to winning the

04:14classics but this horse is a little bit more zest than Giant's Causeway, he's a long stride,

04:20he's dour, he's like him, his stride doesn't shorten at Lentons, he's tactically fairly quick

04:27so he's a lot of those similarities but we think he is a little bit more class. Of course his side

04:34Justify never had the chance to run in the Breeders' Cup but it would be quite a coup for him if

04:40City of Troy could pull it off. Yeah so obviously Justify is an incredible horse, like something

04:44we've never seen, he's like a big quarter horse, he's made like that and he was still only got a

04:49mile and a half so that's very rare and listen he never raced a two, he did all his racing at three,

04:53he's a triple crown winner, like for us we felt we were never going to be lucky enough to get our

05:00hands on any other stallion like that ever again you know so that's why obviously the boss went

05:05after him and got him and it's so exciting for us because horses that he will sire will be able to

05:11run on the dirt and on the grass and obviously he's all dirt so he shouldn't improve on the dirt so

05:17it will be very exciting. And finally just to wrap up, I know you are very grateful for Southwell

05:23Racecourse to give you this opportunity, Southwell are very grateful for you to come and bring this

05:28wonderful horse, what do you make of the track and the facilities? It's unbelievable, every time we

05:32come we can't believe it, it's incredible, it's such a lovely area, the atmosphere is lovely,

05:38the track is beautiful, everything is so well done and people are so good, so friendly, the atmosphere

05:44here is incredible, so it's a privilege for us and we feel very grateful to be allowed to come

05:49and to be able to use the facility here really, second to none for us really. Well I think all

05:56of us here today will hope that we've played some small part in helping City of Troy achieve that

06:02wonderful victory at Delmar in a few weeks time, our thanks once again to Aidan O'Brien and all

06:07the team. Thank you Sam, thank you Sam.

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