Frankie Dettori will team up with Joseph O’Brien to try to secure top-flight success in Saratoga on Friday night.
O’Brien has engaged the Italian rider for American Sonja in the $750,000 New York Stakes on turf in advance of the Irish trainer aiming at an even bigger Grade One target 24 hours later.
O’Brien’s Al Riffa is a notable runner in Saturday’s $1 million Manhattan Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Top US rider Johnny Velazquez is set to ride Al Riffa in the 9½-furlong event which is the race before the final leg of the Triple Crown.
Construction work at the Belmont track means its signature race, and a host of other prestigious events, have been moved to Saratoga. The switch to the upstate New York course means the Belmont Stakes has been reduced to 10 furlongs from its traditional 1½ miles.
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Dermot Weld’s Go And Go, winner of the 1990 Belmont, remains the only European-trained horse to win a leg of the US Triple Crown although on this occasion O’Brien’s pair of runners could make a significant impact.
In particular, Al Riffa, winner of the National Stakes at two, ran twice without success last year which means he gets significant 7lb weight pull from rivals such as the Godolphin pair Nations Pride (Dettori) and Measured Time (William Buick).
The second of those 2023 starts saw Al Riffa finish runner-up to no less than the Arc winner Ace Impact. His return to action in last month’s Prix Ganay resulted in a fourth place to Haya Zark.
O’Brien hasn’t had a top-level success on the flat since Al Riffa’s National Stakes in 2022 but American Sonja is a 10/1 shot in morning line betting to put that right. Her opposition includes Godolpin’s English Rose and the ex-Fozzy Stack trained Aspen Grove.
Saratoga in August could yet be the destination for City Of Troy after his redemptive Derby victory at Epsom over the weekend.
Speculation as to where the horse Aidan O’Brien has once again acclaimed as the best he’s ever trained will appear next could continue into later this week. However, a tilt at the Travers Stakes on dirt later this summer is still very much in the mix.
O’Brien said on Monday a decision could be made by the Coolmore ownership later this week about what race City Of Troy will contest next.
The Travers picture could wind up complicated though if Sierra Leone justifies favouritism for Saturday’s Belmont. Beaten a nose by Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby, he is also owned by the Coolmore partners and is a 9/4 Travers favourite with some firms here.
City Of Troy is a 4/7 favourite in early markets for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby later this month, a race Auguste Rodin won a year ago having been victorious at Epsom. Aidan O’Brien has won the Curragh classic a record 15 times.
Whether or not City Of Troy skips the Curragh and is sidelined until a transatlantic tilt at the Travers hasn’t been decided. O’Brien said: “He has a lot of options and can go anywhere really. I’d imagine there will be some kind of plan towards the end of the week.”
Should the son of Justify miss out on the Curragh, his stable companion Los Angeles, third at Epsom, could fly the Ballydoyle flag instead at HQ although O’Brien stressed how City Of Troy has “priority” and “first call on everything”.
In other news, another possible date for City Of Troy, next month’s Eclipse at Sandown, is definitely on the agenda for the horse that was sixth at Epsom, Dancing Gemini.
The Roger Teal-trained colt, runner-up in the French 2,000 Guineas last month, failed to overcome a high draw in the Derby under jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle and is set to drop back in trip to a mile and a quarter.
“He made up a lot of ground, but we were just in the wrong position on the track, and he had to use up a lot of horse to get into a position and then he weakened close home.
“He’d made a big effort to get among the placings, but it didn’t go as smooth as we would have liked. It was a big field and there was a lot of congestion around Tattenham Corner, he ended up going wider than he would have liked,” Teal said.
“What he has shown is that he belongs in those races, he hasn’t disgraced us at all and he ran with credit. With a clearer run he might have been placed.”
“Timing-wise I think the Eclipse looks the favourable race to go for. We had him in the St James’s Palace but we took him out as we thought he’d probably have a hard race in the Derby and it would come too quick. The Eclipse gives us time to freshen him up so as we stand, that’s his target at the moment.
“I’m not sure where the winner will go, possibly the Irish Derby. I just thought he had a bad day at Newmarket, I never bought into the fact he hadn’t trained on.
“Had he won the Guineas ironically there might have only been eight runners in the Derby which would have suited us but because he got beat a few more threw their hat in the ring,” the Epsom-based trainer added.
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