Before there were international football teams, racehorses were proxies for national pride and aspirations. Gladiateur, the first French-bred winner of the Derby at Epsom in 1865, was dubbed “the avenger of Waterloo”, and even now, there can be times when old habits die hard. At 14.41 Pacific Time on Saturday, 21.41GMT in London and Dublin and 05.41 Japan Standard Time tomorrowon Sunday morning in Tokyo, the attention of tens of millions of racing fans across the globe will focus on Del Mar in southern California for a two-minute horse race, as City Of Troy, this year’s Derby winner, and 13 opponents go into the gates before the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
It is a race of champions from three continents, and for City Of Troy, as tough an away fixture as they come. He is attempting to complete an unprecedented double: no winner of the Derby, on turf, has ever added the Classic, on dirt, to his CV. And he is the only runner in the field with no previous experience on the surface. The fierce pace, the kickback and the gate speed of his rivals will be a unique, unrelenting test from the off. There will be no chance to ease himself into the contest, no mid-race lull to fill up his lungs.
