Our Ben Linfoot analyses the performance of City Of Troy in the Coral-Eclipse where he had to battle to see off the challenge of Al Riffa.
On the second of the quarter-final days at Euro 2024 there appeared to be a penalty kick in the Group One Coral-Eclipse at Sandown with CITY OF TROY sent off at 1/4 to see off a below-average field weakened by the absence of the sidelined White Birch earlier in the week.
Aidan O’Brien’s son of Justify tucked away the chance, but not impressively, as he had to win ugly, but he knuckled down to beat runner-up Al Riffa by a length to add an all-important mile and a quarter Group One to his C.V to go along with his Dewhurst success over seven furlongs and Derby win over a mile and a half.
In the day leading up to the race 16mm of rain fell on the Esher track, turning the ground soft, but those conditions were thought not to be an inconvenience to City Of Troy, who won his Dewhurst on such ground, and after Jayarebe and Stay Alert were pulled out of the race on the day, reducing the field to six, he only hardened in the betting with defeat seemingly out of the question.
You could only be a little underwhelmed, then, by how it all panned out, as we quickly went from the routine to a ‘hang on, he could get beat here’ in the straight, as he didn’t pick up as expected when the screws were turned in the final quarter mile, Al Riffa looking a real threat until late in proceedings where City Of Troy’s will to win saw him get the job done in gritty fashion.
He wasn’t at his best, but he was a bit keen early, lugged to his right both on the turn and in the run for home and perhaps the soft ground wasn’t in his favour after all, as he looked a much more fluent mover on quicker conditions at Epsom. He found a way to win, though, and you sense O’Brien will tweak things again, just like he did after the Guineas, as he heads into what will be tougher battles in the second half of the campaign.
From a long way out City Of Troy has looked the kind of project that O’Brien relishes. His breeding, by the American Triple Crown winner, Justify, out of the Group 1-winning Galileo mare, Together Forever, makes him all important for Coolmore’s monster breeding operation and everything he does on the track is with the future stallion posters in mind.
Hence why the Coral-Eclipse and it’s famed first class of the generations moniker was such an attractive next step, even if this year’s renewal ended up lacking a real top-class older horse to judge the three-year-olds against, for all that Al Riffa, a proven top-level horse on soft ground, bounced back to his very best.
City Of Troy’s blip in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas has at least proven to be more nothing more than that and after his terrific come-from-behind win from the difficult stall one slot in the Derby, form that was franked when the third from Epsom, stablemate Los Angeles, landed the Irish Derby at the Curragh last week, he has looked very much the poster boy of the 2024 Flat season.
Plenty rests on his shoulders after this. Earlier in the day the Oaks winner Ezeliya was retired prematurely while the lack of depth in the Eclipse, thanks in part to the issues suffered by the likes of White Birch, Passenger, King Of Steel and Arabian Crown, show a real lack of depth in the middle-distance division.
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Indeed, the one fit and firing older horse amongst the middle-distance crew is City Of Troy’s stablemate Auguste Rodin, a Royal Ascot winner in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes and seemingly bound for the King George at the same track later this month, with the Japan Cup a longer-term target for him.
It looks unlikely they will clash, with City Of Troy having options like the Juddmonte International at York and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, according to O’Brien, and then, if all goes well for him, it could still be all systems go for the Breeders’ Cup Classic on the dirt at Del Mar in November, with his trainer and his owners trying to win the race for the first time at the 17th attempt.
There’s no doubt he remains an exciting horse, potentially on the world stage, and his Eclipse win could be the catalyst to him becoming the dominant ten-furlong horse of the 2024 Flat season, but there’s no getting away from the fact he wasn’t visually impressive, he didn’t really have much to beat and sterner tests await.
First we need those absent here to get back on the track, the likes of White Birch, Passenger and Economics, while the top French horses like Look De Vega, Calandagan and Horizon Dore look potential opponents for City Of Troy to conquer before any trip over the Atlantic. He’ll have to up his game against such opponents, but he could do.
Today City Of Troy could do nothing more than win, another box ticked, his victory here ensuring he joins the illustrious company of Mill Reef, Nashwan, Sea The Stars and Golden Horn, the only other Derby winners to win the Eclipse as three-year-olds since 1970 and 11th all told.
We wanted more, but winning ugly isn’t a bad trait to have, especially when you know you have other methods of victory in your locker. Hopefully we’ll see those again on the City Of Troy tour later in the season.
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