Aidan O'Brien talks up Derby chances of City Of Troy

Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore partners are "back dreaming again" with City Of Troy ahead of the Betfred Derby.

The Justify colt has reclaimed his position at the head of the betting for the Classic, despite running a most lacklustre race in the 2000 Guineas on his first start at three.

O’Brien has raised several theories for his eclipse at Newmarket, but his faith in last year’s champion juvenile has never remotely wavered.

"Everything has been good since and we just accepted that all these things just happened and went wrong on the day and we’ve decided to stay with the plan. He’s done nothing since to make us change the plan. The plan was always to start with the Guineas and go on to the Derby and then go wherever after that and that’s where we still are," he said.

"Sometimes it happens and obviously it happened in the Guineas and it happened again last weekend (in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains with Henry Longfellow). Sometimes things don’t work and really I would always say that it’s my responsibility to make sure it works and when it doesn’t work, well we’ve done our homework but maybe we didn’t do it all properly. That’s the way I would look at the Guineas.

"When he went down to the start he should have been relaxed, but he went into the stalls and he was revved up. He wasn’t flustered, but obviously his mind wasn’t in the right place, because he’s a very good natured horse as you can see – unusually good for a colt. He’s very calm and relaxed, but it all just happened at the wrong few seconds.

"It will make it very interesting the next day. For us, I’m not sure we’ve ever sent a horse to the Derby with as much ability as this. If we can get him to come out of those gates and everything to work properly for him then we