Ahead of Derby winner City of Troy’s run in the Eclipse, Timeform look at Aidan O’Brien’s highest-rated horses.
Last season’s champion juvenile City of Troy bounced back from a poor showing in the 2000 Guineas to win the Derby in impression fashion, looking every bit the hugely exciting prospect he’d seemed when slamming his rivals in the Superlative Stakes and Dewhurst Stakes.
That Derby victory earned City of Troy a Timeform rating of 127p, which places him top among this season’s three-year-olds. The question now is how high can City of Troy climb and can he live up to his reputation and establish himself as one of Aidan O’Brien’s best ever? He’s currently some way shy of the level reached by the likes of Hawk Wing and Galileo, though it’s still early days in his career and he has the Timeform ‘p’ to highlight that he’s likely to improve.
Here’s how O’Brien’s highest-rated horses stack up on the figures.
1. Hawk Wing (Timeform rating 136)
Group 1-winning two-year-old Hawk Wing was the subject of glowing reports ahead of his reappearance in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in 2002 and he has to go down as one of the unluckiest losers of that famous classic. He travelled powerfully under Jamie Spencer in the stand-side group and produced a devastating turn of foot to comfortably beat those on his side of the track but he couldn’t quite get to stablemate Rock of Gibraltar on the far side who hung on to win by a rapidly-diminishing neck. Hawk Wing gained a Group 1 victory at three in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown but runner-up efforts in the Derby, Irish Champion Stakes and QEII Stakes meant it was a rather frustrating campaign for such a highly regarded colt.
However, Hawk Wing did well physically from three to four and fulfilled his potential on his return in the 2003 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury where he produced a spectacular display. With no pacemaker for a change, he was sent straight into the lead and had his high-class rivals toiling from a long way out on his way to an 11-length victory. It was an outstanding performance – backed up by an excellent timefigure – and earned him a Timeform rating of 136.
2. Galileo (134)
Galileo, a 13-length winner on his only outing at two, started his three-year-old campaign with wins in the Ballysax Stakes and Derrinstown Derby Trial before producing a top-class display to land the Derby. Galileo was always well placed by Mick Kinane, just behind the leaders on the outside travelling sweetly, and he quickly put his seal on the race when asked for his effort over two furlongs out, passing the post three and a half lengths clear and still full of running.
That earned Galileo a Timeform rating of 132 – only Sinndar has registered a higher performance rating in the Derby this century – but Galileo raised his game by another 2 lb when battling bravely to beat the top-class Fantastic Light by a couple of lengths in an epic edition of the King George.
Galileo, who was an odds-on favourite at Ascot after winning the Irish Derby in the interim, outstayed the runner-up (who would get his revenge in an all-time classic in the Irish Champion Stakes) to became the first horse since Generous in 1991 to complete the treble of the Derby, Irish Derby and King George.
2= Rip Van Winkle (134)
Rip Van Winkle had to settle for minor honours on his first three starts as a three-year-old, finishing behind the outstanding Sea The Stars on all three occasions, though the performance he produced to finish runner-up in the Eclipse, four and a half lengths in advance of Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit, was a top-class one and as good an effort as any other winner of the Eclipse has posted this century.
With no Sea The Stars to worry about, Rip Van Winkle produced another top-class performance to make the Group 1 breakthrough in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood and he followed up in the QEII at Ascot, though he had to work harder for it, showing a willing response to pressure.
Rip Van Winkle didn’t quite hit the same heights on ratings as a four-year-old but he still managed to bag another Group 1 victory in the Juddmonte International at York which he seemed to win with a bit more in hand than the half-length margin might suggest.
Others of note
133: Stravinsky, Rock of Gibraltar, George Washington, Fame And Glory, So You Think, Excelebration
132: Australia, Duke of Marmalade, Dylan Thomas, High Chaparral, Giant’s Causeway, St Mark’s Basilica
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