It’s not only from an Irish perspective that so much of the 41st Breeders’ Cup revolves around City Of Troy’s Classic bid but the bulk of Ireland’s challenge at Del Mar appears on Friday night where Aidan O’Brien’s Lake Victoria is set to start the hottest favourite on the card.
What American racing likes to call its $34 million ‘World Championships’ has attracted 14 Irish runners in all with eight appearing on Friday and half of them lining up for the opening Juvenile Turf Sprint.
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That’s due off at 9.45 Irish-time with coverage on both specialist racing channels as well as ITV and Virgin Three.
Despite an Irish quartet that includes the Prix Morny winner Whistlejacket as well as his stable companion Ides Of March, Magnum Force representing Ger Lyons and Colin Keane, with Adrian Murray’s Arizona Blaze also in the mix, it is Japan’s Ecoro Sieg that’s the headline horse.
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The unbeaten speedster is one of 19 Japanese runners spread about the 14 Breeders’ Cup races at a track just north of San Diego where Japan struck twice the last time the Breeders’ Cup was in town in 2021.
The Ballydoyle team failed to strike on that occasion but did score with Mendelssohn the only other time Del Mar hosted the Breeders’ Cup in 2017.
He is one of the record six winners the Aidan O’Brien–Ryan Moore team have had in the Juvenile Turf event where they are represented this time by the mercurial Henri Matisse, a sole Irish runner in the finale off at 12.25am.
If Amo Racing’s Hill Road is a hefty outsider in the Juvenile event on dirt, O’Brien and Moore will be heavily favoured to land the $1 million turf event for juvenile fillies.
Gavin Cromwell and Gary Carroll put their hat into the ring with Fiery Lucy but Lake Victoria’s credentials appear faultless by any criteria. The one negative could prove to be a stall one draw for the Moyglare and Cheveley Park winner which limits Ryan Moore’s options.
“I’d imagine Ryan would sneak around the inside with her,” O’Brien said. “She’s a very classy filly. She has a lot of speed. Ryan has no doubt about the trip. [But] when you’re in there, she’ll need a lot of luck.”
Not as much perhaps as City Of Troy will need from the gate when tackling dirt for the first time in the event’s momentous $7 million feature on Saturday night.
