It all comes down to THIS - are you ready for the biggest two minutes in the history of the Coolmore dynasty?

The stakes have never been higher. They were raised a long, long time ago when the chips were pushed towards the Pacific coast of southern California and now, on what feels like a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for Del Mar, we'll see whether the gamble pays off. It's finally time to turn over the cards and see what they've got.

'The lads' have invested billions into this beautiful game. They have seen it all and won it all on our side of the world, but this is the one they really want. This is the one they need, the one they crave, the one they can't bear to be without. It all comes down to this. This is huge, perhaps even the biggest two minutes in the history of the Coolmore dynasty.

There is only one man who could have properly portrayed the magnitude of the occasion and found the right words to tell us just how big a deal City Of Troy winning the Breeders' Cup Classic would be, but he sadly left us in the early hours of Friday morning. The bigger the race, the more there was at stake, the better Alastair Down's pen worked. He was born to write about days like this one.