Los Angeles challenging City Of Troy for favouritism

Despite his blow-out in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, the latter, champion two-year-old after a three-race unbeaten start to his career in 2023, was as short as 7/4 to bounce back and win at Epsom.

However at 3pm on Tuesday he was 11/4 with Betfair, Paddy Power and Sky Bet. Los Angeles is into 10/3 from 6/1 with the first two firms and 3/1 the latter.

Betfair spokesman Barry Orr said: ‘’As a Group One winning two-year-old old on soft ground any further precipitation wouldn’t be an inconvenience to Los Angeles and he should improve considerably for his win in a recognised trial at Leopardstown. Each way backers took the 6/1 down to his current 10/3. City Of Troy is very uneasy on the Betfair exchange and punters are taking a watching brief with him for now.”

Paddy Power spokesman Paul Binfield said: “Los Angeles has now usurped Ambiente Friendly as second favourite and after sustained support is into 10/3 from 5s. Nothing will change City Of Troy being our biggest loser at this stage as he was all the rage for the guts of a year, although there don’t seem to be many punters keen to back him now even at 11/4 (from 9-4).

“There’s not a lot of difference in price in the Ballydoyle big two now and while a week ago I wouldn’t even have envisaged Ryan Moore not partnering City Of Troy and we, of course, have absolutely no idea of their riding arrangements, were Ryan to elect to ride Los Angeles instead, I would be flabbergasted if the latter doesn’t go off favourite.”

Sky Bet Head of Sports PR Michael Shinners said: “The momentum on Tuesday is definitely with Los Angeles. I don’t know if people have concerns over the ground for City Of Troy but plenty will be keeping an eye on the forecast for Epsom and it will be interesting to see how this plays out before declaration time on Thursday and then through to the race.”

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