City Of Troy’s triumphant comeback: Overcoming setbacks to claim Derby glory

In the aftermath of his crushing defeat in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket it was tempting to think that the City Of Troy bubble had burst. Had this brilliant two-year-old simply failed to train on, failed to physically mature in the way some of his peers had., or was the poor run simply a blip on an otherwise unblemished record?

After Newmarket trainer Aidan O’Brien set to establish what had gone wrong at Newmarket and to put it right in time for Epsom and the colt’s date with destiny in the Derby at Epsom. Ryan Moore had suggested the colt had become stirred up in the stalls at Newmarket and that was what the team focused on, O’Brien conducting stalls work with the horse and applying science to measure progress, tracking the colt’s heart-rate through the process to identify whether their work was yielding results.

Unable to get a ticket to go into the stalls late at the Derby start, they had to sit and suffer as the colt loaded early and had a fairly lengthy stand in the stalls, ironically his stablemate Los Angeles’s reluctance to load caused most of the delay. But the work had paid off, the colt kept his head and the first part of the plan was successfully executed.

The rest was now down to both horse and jockey, with Moore switching the colt off at the back of the field as they exited the start.

Racing towards the mile pole City Of Troy had taken slightly closer order but was still rear of midfield and turning for home around Tattenham Corner he was still in a group of six at the back with his stablemates Euphoric and Los Angeles leading the way at the front.

Moore now set to work on his colt and City Of Troy responded in no uncertain terms. He was quickly weaving his way through traffic and making ground on the inside. Ambiente Friendly, the second favourite, was travelling best of all on the outside, jockey Rab Havlin barely having moved aboard James Fanshawe’s Lingfield Derby Trial winner.

As they approached the two furlong marker Moore had hit the front. Havlin now went for his colt but they took a few strides to get into top gear by which time City Of Troy had established a lead and try as he might Ambiente Friendly couldn’t bridge the gap which had extended to just short of three lengths at the line.

Aidan O’Brien characteristically accepted responsibility for the colt’s poor run at Newmarket. “Maybe we gave him too much respect in the winter,” he said before elaborating on the stalls issues that they felt were at the root of the problem in the Guineas.

“He went into the stalls [at Newmarket] and he exploded,” said O’Brien before explaining about the stalls work that had subsequently been done. “You’re learning every year, if you don’t make mistakes you don’t move forward” he added, as self-effacingly as ever.

Jockey Moore was full of praise for City Of Troy. “Felt like a good winner,” he said, adding that “there was never a moment’s doubt, I just had to pick a path.” He credited the winner with being a “special horse.”

Plans remain fluid for the winner although O’Brien’s immediate response was to mention the possibility of a trip to Saratoga in the US for the Travers Stakes. That’d be a highly unusual and unorthodox route for a Derby winner but orthodoxy has been challenged by Ballydoyle and Coolmore supremo John Magnier throughout his career and he will have an eye on the lucrative US breeding market. City Of Troy’s sire, US Triple Crown winner Justify, stands there and the possibility that his classic winning son may follow in his footsteps will have the Coolmore boss now plotting how to maximise that opportunity. A dirt win at the top level would potentially make City Of Troy one of history’s hottest stallion prospects.