This season’s ‘boom’ three-year-old City Of Troy, an emphatic winner of the Epsom Derby in June, completed a Group 1 double when victorious in the 126th running of the Coral-Eclipse last weekend.
Following in the footsteps of equine greats Mill Reef, Seas The Stars and most recently Golden Horn, City Of Troy became the first Derby winner from Ballydoyle to win Sandown’s summer showpiece.
City Of Troy (Ryan Moore) sees off his rivals – 2nd placed Al Riffa (Dylan Browne McMonagle) and 3rd placed Ghostwriter under Richard Kingscote (Pic – Coolmore)
The Aidan O’Brien trained colt saw off his closest rival, the year older Al Riffa by a length in the ten-furlong feature. Always looking to be doing enough, he was kept up to his work by Ryan Moore after heading his pace making stable companion Hans Andersen over the final furlong.
Rather predictably, ‘worst Eclipse winner’ appeared in several exaggerated British headlines but as always in these scenarios it’s important to separate horse and the performance.
Moore noted post-race that he was still learning about the colt and that City Of Troy had ‘found plenty’ when asked. The champion jockey added that the ground was an inconvenience and that the racing public will see a much-improved version on better ground. A stronger gallop would also greatly benefit this lightly raced colt.
These points may sound like excuses which many in the British press have used to debate the merit of this colt, but that fact remains that he has won another prized Group 1 contest to add to his Dewhurst and Derby successes.
Aidan O’Brien has not ruled out the prospect of City Of Troy tackling the King George, the Juddmonte International and the Irish Champion Stakes this season with the master trainer convinced his star colt won despite everything going against him at Sandown.
Now that the dust has settled on the much-debated display, O’Brien thinks the testing conditions and the tempo of the race meant we were not able to witness the same City Of Troy we saw at Epsom and the remainder of the season is seen in a positive light by the Ballydoyle trainer.
As Timeform reflected: “City of Troy gained a fifth win from six starts, though given how simple his task looked it was a rather underwhelming effort, a shorter trip and steadier pace perhaps not suiting him so well as the Derby had, while, most significantly of all, ground that had become very taxing rendered this less about posting another big figure and more about getting the job done.”
