US star Fierceness may have emerged as the biggest threat to City Of Troy’s chance of a breakthrough win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in November.

Wildness prevailed on Saturday night when many of America’s best dirt riders met at Saratoga for the Travers Stakes, a race that had originally been on the City Of Troy schedule earlier this season.

The star, trained by Todd Pletcher, had his male rivals well under control but had to fight hard to beat the mare Thorpedo Anna, who was a head ahead of him.

She is unlikely to take the $7 million Classic option when the $33 million Breeders’ Cup is run at Del Mar on Nov. 1-2; more likely she will stick with her gender in the Distaff instead.

Fierceness, however, is on course for a thrilling duel with City Of Troy in America’s most valuable race. He is second favourite at 5/1 in the ante-post lists on his side of the Atlantic, one point less than the horse Aidan O’Brien describes as the best horse he has ever trained.

Following his victory in the Juddmonte International at York last week, City Of Troy will not race again before attempting to secure his Coolmore owner a long-awaited first Classic success.

However, O’Brien is willing to take him to the UK to gain experience on an all-weather surface, a tactic he has used in the past when preparing horses for sand.

“The guys (owners) are talking about taking him to the Classic and if he goes to the Classic we have to give him the best preparation we can here.

“That probably means he’ll have to go to Southwell or one of those racetracks. He’ll have to get on a plane because he’ll have to travel and get some nice training somewhere.

“Hopefully we will prepare him as well as we can to give him the chance to run his best race in America. It’s a big task, but we keep dreaming and it will be exciting to see,” he said.

The champion trainer has not ruled out last week’s Great Vaulter winner Los Angeles running in next month’s Irish Champion Stakes, where he could line up alongside stablemates Auguste Rodin and Luxembourg.

“He could either run in the St Leger or the Irish Champion Stakes. If he runs in the Arc, he could of course run in the Irish Champion Stakes,” O’Brien said of the Irish Derby hero.

“We will see what the ground is like at Doncaster and there are three other horses that could run in the St Leger if he (Los Angeles) didn’t run there. He seems to have come through the race (at York) well. We will see what happens in the next few weeks,” he added.

On a British bank holiday Monday there is action in Downpatrick in the afternoon and further show jumping in Ballinrobe later in the evening.

Paddy Twomey brings Seo Linn back to the Mayo track for another bumper contest after her promising debut in May, and that experience could prove crucial in the final against some interesting newcomers.