City Of Troy became Aidan O’Brien’s latest Classic magic trick. Our man at Epsom reflects on another dramatic afternoon.
In the end he did have the answers.
City Of Troy won the Betfred Derby.
We’ve seen it all before – 12 months to the day before – the second Classic resurrection in as many years from Aidan O’Brien and his Ballydoyle team.
Where Auguste Rodin had to fend off King Of Steel to claim his Epsom prize, the 2024 victor was forced to avoid the potentially errant path of an inexperienced loose horse in Voyage and not allow the strong-travelling Ambiente Friendly to lay a glove on him at the business end of proceedings.
There’s no point re-living the blow-out in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas, we did it to death in the build-up. In the end the lack of a smoking gun afterwards, means the too fresh and heart-rate too high theories the trainer put forward in the days afterwards were in fact spot on.
Because here the son of Justify was as dominant as he was as a two-year-old. Strong at the line, looking every inch, and in his case how they’ve been measured, the high-class colt he went into winter quarters being.
For O’Brien there’s the satisfaction of another fine job done. Last year’s felt like a miraculous magic trick. Now he’s making the staggering look routine.
But in many ways what really matters is what happens next.
In Auguste Rodin’s case there were glory days, at the Curragh, Leopardstown and Santa Anita, but more blow-outs. Despite those days in the sun, it’s hard to argue his reputation has been significantly enhanced since he tasted Derby glory.
If City Of Troy was indeed the most talented colt the handler has ever sent to the Derby, then it’s time to build, to go forward, to rule.
He’s his trainer’s tenth winner of the great race.
Only Galileo (132) and High Chaparral (130) hit Timeform numbers to put them in the top-class bracket.
Camelot (128) and Australia (127) came close, but Auguste Rodin, Anthony Van Dyck, Wings Of Eagles, Serpentine and Ruler Of The World were mid or low 120s.
And when the firm confirm their rating for the 2024 winner in the next day or so, he’s likely to be somewhere around the number Auguste Rodin ran to. The symmetry is almost complete.
But from here they need to drift apart.
The prospect of them going to head-to-head somewhere this autumn is tantalising but unlikely.
For City Of Troy the Irish Derby could be next or even the dirt at Saratoga. Then they take aim – at Ascot, York, Leopardstown, ParisLongchamp, wherever. The thing that will make him different to most who’ve gone before from his County Tipperary base, is if he delivers, and often.
And if you’re looking for reasons why he might in this performance it’s the power, the way he went to the front and then sustained the run all the way through the line. As Aidan might say, it’s unusual for such a run to last this long.
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‘If you don’t make mistakes, you don’t go forward’
Afterwards the trainer was keen to blame himself again for the Newmarket performance.
“We’d never had a horse like him last year and I left him a little too fresh for the Guineas and he went into the stalls and exploded. That was the one stone we’d never looked under, we’d never had to with the horse because he was so straightforward, we never expected that to happen,” he said.
“In the Guineas he just went in and charged the stalls and before he had the chance to get his breath back he was out and gone. We feel his heart-rate went too high, he only got to halfway and that was that.
“We still weren’t sure about that until we got him back. We gave him two or two and a half weeks to get him to the stage where we could put him in the stalls again and we had a Fitbit on him when he went into the stalls and his heart-rate went way above 240 just standing in them.
“That for us, meant we knew what had happened in Newmarket and we had to give him time, the lads had to work on him, and the next time he went into the stalls he was as calm as anything.
“Dean (Gallagher) rode him the first day he went in the stalls and said as soon as he went in his heart was going out of his side, and the Fitbit showed that. The next time Rachel (Richardson) rode him and he was calm, and the Fitbit showed a totally different profile.
“It was very exciting when we found that. If we didn’t what was it? Was he only a two-year-old, was he losing his head and could we get it back? No. I think I just left him too fresh and showed him too much respect in the winter and weren’t hard enough on him because it was so straightforward.
“We hadn’t put him in the stalls because we never thought something like this could happen. You’re learning every year but with a horse like this making a mistake can cost so much. It’s another thing that goes on the list moving forward and has to be done.
“I was very sorry about it but if you don’t make mistakes, you don’t go forward and we were very sure that was the reason.”
And they were right.
If Aidan is learning every year, he’s taking the rest of us with him.
City Of Troy is back on track. And for the racing year of 2024 that’s good news.
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