Can City of Troy bounce back in the Betfred Derby on June 1?

The potential of 'off' ground for the age-old Derby at Epsom may cause mayhem for some participants next Saturday.

Aidan O'Brien feels City Of Troy, sired by American Triple Crown champion Justify, may be the most outstanding Betfred Derby candidate he has ever trained.

The master of Ballydoyle reveals he is "dreaming again" of winning the world's biggest Flat race for the record-breaking tenth time, having ridden Galileo, Camelot, Ruler of the World, Australia, and Auguste Rodin to victory at Epsom Downs.

And despite City Of Troy's dismal seasonal debut in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, where he finished ninth of 11 runners on Newmarket's Rowley Mile earlier this month, O'Brien remains optimistic.

During a media visit to his spectacular training facility hosted by The Jockey Club, he stated: "Everything has been going well since the Guineas. We accepted that everything transpired and went wrong that day, and we decided to stick to 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. Sometimes it happens and obviously it happened in the Guineas… 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.”

City Of Troy won three seven-furlong races as a two-year-old before a dismal performance over a mile in the season's first Classic.

However, O'Brien is not concerned about taking him up to a mile and a half in the Betfred Derby. He said: “I never thought any trip was a problem for him. You’re never sure until you do it but he has a big long stride and he’s usually very chilled and relaxed. It will be a very interesting race now.”

“I suppose what he did last year – everything he was doing last year the statistics were adding up. His times, everything. He never disappointed us in any way.”