City Of Troy’s Breeders’ Cup Classic dream moved a step closer on Tuesday morning after he encountered the Del Mar dirt for the first time under the watchful eye of Aidan O’Brien.

Bar his 2000 Guineas blip, the son of American Triple Crown hero Justify has carried all before him this season, with victories in the Derby at Epsom, the Eclipse at Sandown and Juddmonte International at York cementing his status as the cream of the crop in Europe.

He faces an altogether different test on his swansong in California this weekend, as he bids to transfer his brilliant turf form to an alien surface against the best America has to offer, not to mention serious competition from Japan.

Following a period in quarantine, all eyes were on City Of Troy in the hands of his regular work rider Rachel Richardson, with the three-year-old sitting second in a string of 11 Ballydoyle inmates plus Donnacha O’Brien’s star filly Porta Fortuna.

While no serious questions were asked in a steady canter, O’Brien was pleased with how City Of Troy – who did appear to get a little warm on his neck – traversed the track in behind the Breeders’ Cup Turf-bound Luxembourg and is now counting down the days until his date with destiny on Saturday.

Gentle work

“City just did a gentle canter round. Everyone was very happy and I’m happy that the dream is alive,” he said.

“The boss (John Magnier) went and got Justify, which hatched the dream that we might get a horse that can do it on grass and dirt. He was an incredible Triple Crown winner and I feel City has a lot of his qualities.”

With his pride and joy seemingly well drawn in gate three, O’Brien has made no secret of the fact City Of Troy will be ridden more aggressively than ever before.

He added: “City will go forward and Ryan (Moore) will decide there and then (how to play it).

“We’ve looked under every stone and we’ve done everything we can. When he went to York he went forward and then he was even more forward (in a racecourse gallop) at Southwell. So we will see what happens, but it’s left to Ryan to make his own mind up.

“We know when the race happens it will be the fiercest that any thoroughbred can be tested in, and he’s a three-year-old.

“The Classics are the ultimate test of a three-year-old racing against his own age group, but this is the ultimate test at the end of the year after being trained very hard for Classics and then against older horses in a race run on a different surface and o a different continent.

“He will literally canter for four days out here and I suppose what gives us hope is we think he’s the best we’ve ever had and we have had horses that have run very well in the Breeders’ Cup Classic before.

“Obviously it’s a dream and one for which we must wait and see if it comes true.”