City Of Troy has a binary form line of 111-01 after his smooth and comprehensive success in the Derby at Epsom on Saturday, and when his racing career concludes – hopefully in November 2025, but perhaps more plausibly in five months’ time – the zero in the 2,000 Guineas last month may well prove to have been every bit as significant as any of the ones.
There is an alternate reality in which City Of Troy did not get upset in the stalls before the Guineas and remains unbeaten, and in which this column is discussing the pros and cons of sending him to the St Leger at Doncaster in September, the final leg of the Triple Crown.
But he did and he isn’t, and as much as many of us would love to see another attempt at the Triple Crown – the atmosphere on Town Moor as Camelot went to post in 2012 was extraordinary – the possibilities for City Of Troy in the here and now are equally compelling.
The success on Saturday – and City Of Troy’s subsequent anointing by Aidan O’Brien as the best of his 10 Derby winners – was a double‑win for the Coolmore Stud syndicate that owns him. They have another exceptional stallion prospect when the time comes, who will earn a huge multiple of Saturday’s £800,000 first prize in covering fees before any of his foals even see a track. The effect on his sire Justify’s fee, meanwhile, could be just as dramatic.
The path that “the lads” in the syndicate map out for the Derby winner now will be as much about Justify as it is about City Of Troy. The latest star of the Coolmore roster has sired Grade One and Group One winners on dirt and turf in his first two crops, and now has a winner of the most prestigious European Classic.
Justify is already well on the way towards being the first dual-purpose stallion of Flat racing’s global era, capable of siring high-class middle‑distance winners whatever the surface and conditions. The remainder of City Of Troy’s career could conceivably complete the process.
Quick GuideGreg Wood's Monday tips
Show
Ayr 2.15 Haazeez 2.45 Desert Quest 3.15 Little Empire 3.45 Boy Douglas 4.15 Ayr Poet 4.45 Monhammer
Brighton 2.30 Voltaic 3.00 Mutamanni 3.30 Blenheim Star 4.00 On The Cards 4.30 Oh So Audacious 5.00 Bluebells Boy
Windsor 5.10 Noisy Music 5.45 Cayman Tai 6.15 Gutsy Girl 6.45 Jimmy Speaking (nb) 7.15 Silver Gunn 7.45 Angel On High 8.15 Miss Harmony 8.45 My Ambition
Wetherby 6.30 Unspoken Love 7.00 Night Of Desire 7.30 Glistening Nights 8.00 Yazaman (nap) 8.30 Wintercrack 9.00 Smooth Silesie
There was talk of a run in the 10-furlong Travers Stakes at Saratoga in late August before City Of Troy’s flop in the Guineas and the potential payoff from a win in America’s “Midsummer Derby”, against a field that could well include the Kentucky Derby winner, Mystik Dan, would be huge.
It would be a gamble, of course. There are more traditional targets for a Derby winner, including the Irish Derby, the Eclipse in July, the International Stakes at York in August and, in early September, the Irish Champion Stakes.
The Travers, though, is also a natural springboard to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race that has been unfinished business for Ballydoyle and Coolmore ever since Giant’s Causeway’s narrow defeat behind Tiznow in a race for the ages nearly a quarter of a century ago.
City Of Troy was quoted at about 8-1 for the Triple Crown before his flop in the Guineas. He is now the same sort of price to become the first horse to win the Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and with all due respect to Doncaster and the St Leger, that would be an achievement to surpass even a Triple Crown.