Could it be City Of Troy’s singular fate to end up being regarded as an outstanding racehorse damned with too much praise?
The horse acclaimed by Aidan O’Brien as the best he’s ever trained, and billed as “our Frankel” by his Coolmore ownership, followed in the hoofprints of giants by winning Wednesday’s Juddmonte International at York.
He did it in course record time – breaking the mark set by Sea The Stars in 2009 – under an inspired front-running ride from Ryan Moore that secured O’Brien an unrivalled seventh success in the race.
After abject failure to fire in the 2,000 Guineas, his only defeat to date, it was City Of Troy’s third top-flight victory in a row, following Derby glory at Epsom and a gritty Eclipse victory. It’s a superb hat-trick last pulled off by Sea The Stars.
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This was perhaps the most impressive display of them all, underlining his unarguable position as a top-class thoroughbred, maybe even the outstanding performer of his generation, and one possessed of the substance to rejuvenate his career after Newmarket.
What it wasn’t though was the sort of ‘statement’ performance so widely anticipated before the race, one that justified those Frankel comparisons famously uttered by part owner Michael Tabor last year.
On ITV beforehand Ruby Walsh pointed to Frankel and Sea The Stars as unparalleled greats, claiming City Of Troy would have to “blow away” his rivals to justify such comparisons.
That didn’t happen. At the line, the 5/4 favourite had a length in hand of the 110-rated French gelding Calandagan with Ghostwriter outrunning his 33/1 odds in third.
Given how quick ground conditions at York looked to strongly favour front runners, it could be argued that Moore’s decision to go straight to the lead from the gate was the winning of the race.
The English jockey threw out pre-race tactical plans on the way to the start in an outstanding example of decisive jockeyship. As in the Eclipse, City Of Troy once again didn’t look to make his rider’s life easy up the straight by hanging right. But he also once again got the job done.
Normally success tempers outside nitpicking but Moore has clearly grown tired of the hype surrounding the colt. Echoing post-Eclipse comments by the Coolmore supremo John Magnier, he said: “There’s no point me talking – you’ll all make your minds up.”
O’Brien too has clearly wearied of some of the talk, although both he and Moore stated that the son of Justify is the best they’ve been involved with.
But the original Frankel comparison was Tabor’s, and Coolmore fanned much of the subsequent expectation around their hugely valuable star. Comparisons to the best demand the ultimate standards be applied and, by any reasonable measure, City Of Troy has yet to jump from top-class to consideration as an all-time great.
If it’s unfortunate for him to be criticised for what he isn’t rather than what he clearly is. Maybe he’ll still get a chance to live up to the more extreme hype before being probably whisked off to stud at the end of the year.
Coolmore have been chasing their commercial ‘Holy Grail’ in the Breeders’ Cup Classic for over two decades. City Of Troy’s European career may even be over, with just the prospect of one final spectacular and definitive hurrah at Del Mar in November to look forward to. He is a 3/1 favourite to beat the best Americans on their own dirt.
“He was the most special horse we’ve ever had. We thought that as a two-year-old. We went off the road in the first run this year and down into the swamp, but for him to come out of it and to get where he is today is incredible,” O’Brien said.
Fussy carping might have been the only negative on what was, even by O’Brien’s stellar standards, a memorable York card.
Irish Derby winner Los Angeles beat his stable companion Illinois in a Ballydoyle one-two in the Great Voltigeur. The winner could take in next month’s Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown en route to a tilt at the Arc.
But in a sport where the next big deal usually comes around every year, even before this summer is out the Ballydoyle team have the new favourite for next year’s Guineas and Derby.
The Lion In Winter, a son of Sea The Stars, proved much too good in his clash with Godolphin’s Ruling Court by landing the Acomb Stakes under another Moore spin from the front.
“He’s the only Sea The Stars we have. He’s very good looking which is why the lads bought him. You’d have to like everything he’s doing at the moment. I think he’d be okay at the top level this year looking at what he did there,” said O’Brien with what almost amounted to understatement.
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