In advance of City Of Troy’s date with Breeders Cup destiny in Del Mar next weekend, Aidan O’Brien took care of classic business for 2025 with an unlikely Group One success for Twain in Paris on Sunday.
Just eight days after making a winning Leopardstown debut, the supplemented Twain romped to victory in Saint-Cloud’s Criterium International earning quotes of as low as 8/1 for next year’s 2,000 Guineas.
The strapping son of Wootten Bassett made light of the quick jump in class and firmly burst the bubble of French favourite Maranoa Charlie. Once again, the latter quickly built up a long lead in the mile contest but was a sitting duck from two furlongs out and faded to fourth.
Jockey Ryan Moore was clearly impressed after his first ride on the winner and O’Brien immediately put Twain among his list of Guineas contenders next year.
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“It probably wasn’t fair to him, he only ran eight days ago. He’s always been highly rated, and we ran him last week just in case what happened did happen as we knew we had to give him a chance and there was only one Group One left,” he said.
“He’s a very good mover and he points his toe, so he’d have to be better on a better surface. He’s obviously got a big engine, but he’s a baby. He was ducking at the cone on his way to the start and I was afraid this might be too much for him,” he added.
At the line Twain had just over a length in hand of his stable companion Mount Kilimanjaro with another Irish hope, Apples And Bananas, in third.
In less than 24 hours it completed a stellar top-flight hat-trick for Irish-trained juveniles.
In the race prior to Twain, Joseph O’Brien’s Tennessee Stud beat just two rivals in the Criterium De Saint-Cloud, in the process paying a massive compliment to Jessica Harrington’s Hotazhell who had beaten him in last month’s Beresford Stakes at the Curragh.
On Saturday Hotazhell put himself in next year’s classic picture with a game defeat of Ballydoyle’s favourite Delacroix in Doncaster’s Futurity.
Tennessee Stud joins his National Stakes-winning stable companion Scorthy Champ among O’Brien Jnr’s list of classic hopefuls for 2025 after winning a €250,000 ten-furlong heat won by Los Angeles a year ago.
“He’s very big and I expect him to be better as a three-year-old. He’ll have a break and he’ll be trained now with the Derby at Epsom being his target,” O’Brien said of the colt bred by his parents.
The glut of top-class action brought to an end Europe’s Group One season, at the end of which it is O’Brien’s The Lion In Winter who tops betting lists for next year’s Guineas and Derby.
City Of Troy has been Europe’s headline act this year with victory in June’s Epsom Derby and is a general 6/4 favourite to finally deliver Breeders Cup Classic glory to Ballydoyle next weekend.
The $7 million 1¼-mile dirt centrepiece to American racing’s showpiece event run this year at the Del Mar track outside San Diego has proved elusive to European racing’s most powerful operation for over two decades.
City Of Troy’s nearest rivals in the betting markets are the top US dirt performer Fierceness and Japan’s Forever Young, narrowly beaten in May’s Kentucky Derby.
In other news, Ireland’s flat season ends at the Curragh next Saturday but there is no ‘end of term’ vibe to the three-pronged race to be crowned champion apprentice that continues at Galway’s Bank Holiday Monday action.
James Ryan leads Wayne Hassett by just one winner (31 to 30) with Adam Caffrey on 29. Ryan is odds-on with one firm to eventually win but Hassett has a numerical edge at Ballybrit with a full book of eight rides, twice as many as his rival. Caffrey has three spins.
Hassett’s claim adds to Mississippi River’s credentials for a maiden success as his runner up effort to stable companion Twain last weekend looks a very different proposition now. Whisper A Prayer also looks a good chance for Hassett in a later maiden.
Some high-profile National Hunt names return to action at Wexford’s card on Monday, topped by the Cheltenham Gold Cup contender Corbetts Cross.
Last season’s impressive National Hunt Chase winner is as low as 14/1 in ‘Blue Riband’ betting lists and gets his campaign under way in the Listed Michael Hickey Chase.
This is no easy task on official ratings however as Mark Walsh’s mount must concede plenty weight to the smart Heart Wood while the high-class hurdler Buddy One is also in the mix.
A pair of Grade One-winning hurdlers, Inthepocket and Farren Glory, get their careers over fences under way in a Beginners Chase.
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