Aidan O'Brien to train 'absolute freak' sprinter for Royal Ascot campaign

Aidan O’Brien is to train a top sprinter by the same sire as star colt City Of Troy.

While City Of Troy, the Derby, Eclipse and Juddmonte International winner, moves on to begin a career as a stallion, Storm Boy is set to join Ballydoyle from .

on Saturday night when the colt who O’Brien hailed as the best horse he has ever trained, failed to live up to expectations and was a well beaten eighth behind Sierra Leone, who is also owned by the Coolmore partners.

Having invested so much time and effort into preparing City Of Troy for US dirt, convinced the son of a US Triple Crown winner would take to the surface, it was a hugely disappointing result for O’Brien.

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City Of Troy retires to Coolmore Stud in Ireland, a winner of six out of eight starts and career earnings of £2.4 million.

But as one son of Justify departs, another arrives with Coolmore Australia announcing one of Australia’s top sprinters is heading to Ballydoyle. Storm Boy, trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, won his first four races as a two-year-old.

He was a hot favourite for the Golden Slipper, Australia’s premier race for two-year-olds, and Ryan Moore was flown over to ride him. Previewing the race, Racenet’s editor described Storm Boy as “an absolute freak”.

He said: “In the 35 years I've followed this game closely, he's right up there with the best two-year-olds I've seen.”

Storm Boy, who was slowly away, recovered to have his chance but finished third behind stablemate Lady Of Camelot.

He has won one of his four subsequent starts and on his latest start was eighth, beaten two lengths, in the £10m Everest, the ’s richest turf race, in October. In Australia he has earned £1.9m in prize-money.

He will now travel to Europe with Coolmore Australia announcing, “Talented three-year-old Storm Boy will travel to Ireland to be trained by Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle, with a view to contesting top sprint races in Europe next season.”

Australian sprinters have a formidable record in Europe, particularly at where the mare Asfoora became the eighth speedster from down under to strike at the prestigious meeting when capturing the King Charles III Stakes in June.

O’Brien has form with Australian sprinters, winning twice at the royal meeting with horses relocated by Coolmore.

His two victories in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes have been achieved with ex-Australian sprinters.

He produced Starspangledbanner to win the race in 2010, as well as the July Cup, and added his second victory eight years later with Merchant Navy.