Joseph O'Brien expects Classic to be 'race of the year'

Joseph O'Brien feels City Of Troy is the "right type" for the Breeders’ Cup Classic as he gears up to witness what "could be one of the races of the year" at Del Mar on Saturday.

Aidan O’Brien’s son has seen plenty of Breeders’ Cups down the years, not only as a supportive son to his father, but also as his jockey and in more recent years, a contemporary in the training ranks.

The younger O’Brien knows exactly how it feels to experience the challenge of the Breeders’ Cup Classic having partnered Declaration Of War to finish a narrow third to Mucho Macho Man for team Ballydoyle in 2013.

With no runners at the Breeders’ Cup this year, Joseph O’Brien is at Del Mar simply in hope of seeing history made, as the all-conquering son of Justify bids to end his father’s long quest to land the $7million contest.

"I think City Of Troy is the right type for the race, he’s got a ton of speed and a high cruising speed," said O’Brien.

"As you know, there’s only one way to find out if they will adapt to the dirt or not and that is to run on it. I think he has the attributes though that would suggest he could be one of those that can adapt and take to it.

"I think it will be a fantastic race with some of the best dirt horses in America and top turf horses in Europe taking each other on and it could be one of the races of the year."

Some of the biggest moments in O’Brien’s racing life have come at the Breeders’ Cup, winning the Turf aboard St Nicholas Abbey in 2011 and saddling Iridessa to strike at Santa Anita in 2019 after hanging up his riding boots.

Despite his best efforts, he was unable to break his father’s Classic losing streak when coming within a quarter of a length of glory in California 11 years ago.

Other than Mick Kinane’s agonising