Horse of The Year: City of Troy

Wins for two-year-olds Lake Victoria and Henri Matisse at the Breeders’ Cup took Aidan O’Brien’s total of winners at the meeting over the years to 20, equalling a record established by multiple US champion trainer and Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas. All bar one of O’Brien’s Breeders’ Cup victories have come on turf, the exception being the two-year-old who provided him with his very first winner at the meeting. In 2001, US-bred colt Johannesburg kept his unbeaten record when successfully switching to the dirt – there were no turf races for two-year-olds at the Breeders’ Cup in those days - and winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Belmont.

At Del Mar 23 years later, Johannesburg’s great grandson City of Troy, a US-bred son of unbeaten Triple Crown winner Justify, was set a similar challenge when making his dirt debut in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. City of Troy represented O’Brien’s 18th bid to win the Classic and was the latest among several from his stable with top-class turf form to contest the race. But all things considered – his own level of form, the lack of a standout American contender, his sire’s record on dirt – he looked the best credentialled Ballydoyle contender since Giant Causeway came within a neck of providing his trainer with what would have been his first success at the meeting at Churchill Downs a year before Johannesburg got him off the mark.

City of Troy’s bid certainly captured the imagination of British and Irish racing fans like few other Breeders’ Cup challengers, many of them backing him accordingly. Sky Bet reported City of Troy to be easily the best backed horse in the Classic and more than twice as much was staked on that race than any other on the day, while William Hill anticipated a pay-out ‘in the region of seven figures’ if City of Troy won. ITV was able to feature the Classic in its live Breeders’ Cup coverage, with a change in the usual running order (prompted by NBC’s commitment to covering college football rather than out of consideration for a European audience) meaning the Classic took place earlier on the card rather than as the usual final race which would have meant an off-time after midnight in the UK. Even City of Troy’s gallop on the tapeta at Southwell in late-September as part of his preparation for Del Mar had attracted plenty of interest, being broadcast live and taking place in front of a crowd of more than a thousand.

Anti-climax at Del Mar

But after all the build-up and anticipation, City of Troy’s Classic bid was effectively over in seconds once the stalls opened. Not the best away, he was soon towards the rear, going with little fluency and never threatened to make it out of the second half of the field, beaten almost 13 lengths into eighth behind the Kentucky Derby runner-up Sierra Leone carrying Sue Magnier’s pink second colours. O’Brien’s initial reaction, not untypically, was to blame himself for City of Troy’s disappointing showing but, frankly, nothing in even O’Brien’s powers could have done much about the colt’s failure to take to the different surface.

O’Brien has had to deal with worse outcomes in the Classic, George Washington’s second attempt at the race ending tragically, and City of Troy’s failed Breeders’ Cup bid – a sporting one on the part of his owners, though essentially a cheap roll of the dice in view of potential commercial returns – won’t define his career any more than it did their other Derby winner to contest the Classic, Galileo, the sire of City of Troy’s dam. After all, defeats that are easily explained, as City of Troy’s was, are also the easiest to forgive. For what it’s worth, City of Troy remains the highest-rated horse in the Breeders’ Cup Classic field even after the event, Sierra Leone earning a rating of 126 in a contest where three-year-olds took the first three places.

The only other blemish on City of Troy’s record is admittedly more puzzling but his odds-on defeat on good ground in the 2000 Guineas, in which he was actually beaten further than he was at Del Mar, matters little now too given what he achieved in his subsequent races in Britain. But that still left City of Troy in the same position as Ballydoyle’s main Derby hope the year before, Auguste Rodin, he too a flop in the 2000 Guineas beforehand.

City of Troy was sent off the 3/1 favourite to restore his reputation at Epsom and, despite taking a strong hold, relished the longer trip of the Derby, making an eye-catching move early in the straight and soon assuming command once leading with over two furlongs to run. Taking plenty of pulling up after crossing the line, City of Troy beat second favourite Ambiente Friendly, the pick of the trial winners (successful at Lingfield) in the field by two and three-quarter lengths. Galileo had been O’Brien’s first Derby winner and City of Troy took his trainer’s record number of winners to ten.

How he compares to O'Brien's Derby winners

So how does City of Troy measure up against his trainer’s previous Derby winners? Judged on three-year-old form as a whole rather than just their performances at Epsom, only two of O’Brien’s Derby winners achieved higher ratings. Galileo (134) in 2001 went on to win the Irish Derby and produced his very best effort when beating the top older horse in training Fantastic Light in the King George. Australia (132) also followed up in the Irish Derby but ran his best race in the Juddmonte International, beating the high-class Prix du Jockey Club winner The Grey Gatsby who turned the tables on him in the following month’s Irish Champion Stakes. City of Troy’s rating of 130 puts him alongside 2002 Derby winner High Chaparral who didn’t need to reproduce his Epsom form to win either the Irish Derby or Breeders’ Cup Turf. Incidentally, runner-up to High Chaparral in the Derby was stablemate Hawk Wing whose ten-length win in the following year’s Lockinge Stakes earned him a rating of 136 which sets the standard among the many top-class performers O’Brien has trained.

Like Australia, City of Troy was also to produce his best performance at York, but unlike most of his stable’s Derby winners, he was sent to the Eclipse after Epsom, rather than the Curragh where Derby third Los Angeles successfully did duty for Ballydoyle instead. But it had been by no means certain that City of Troy would be seen at all in Europe for the rest of the year. Immediately after the Derby O’Brien outlined a possible American dirt campaign. In view of events at Del Mar, the decision to stick to a more conventional programme on turf first was certainly the right one.

A bare reading of the Eclipse result was underwhelming given what an exciting prospect City of Troy had looked at Epsom. He certainly didn’t show the same level of form at Sandown and made hard work of landing odds of 1/4 by a length from the no more than very smart four-year-old Al Riffa. But in City of Troy’s defence the going was very taxing at Sandown following heavy rain on watered ground and his willing attitude saw him through.

Top-class display in the Juddmonte International

While the Eclipse field wasn’t a strong one, the same certainly couldn’t be said of the Juddmonte International which attracted a record field of 13 and was Timeform’s Race of The Year (based on the average rating of the first three), living up to its international label with runners from France and Japan besides Britain and Ireland. City of Troy was one of four three-year-olds in the line-up, and while the hard-pulling Ambiente Friendly couldn’t get involved, the other members of the classic generation took the first three places, finishing clear of some very smart older rivals.

Much more convincing than he had been in the Eclipse, City of Troy was encountering firmer conditions for the first time which enabled him to take nearly a second off the course record established by the 2009 winner Sea The Stars (the only other horse to have won the Derby, Eclipse and Juddmonte International). Under a well-judged front-running ride from Ryan Moore who partnered City of Troy in all his races, he kicked on early in the straight and was always holding on as French gelding Calandagan, the impressive King Edward VII Stakes winner, kept on well a length back in second and was clear of Ghostwriter in third who’d filled the same position in the Eclipse. Over a trip short of her best, future Arc winner Bluestocking led home the older horses, staying on in fourth.

City of Troy looked every bit the top-class colt he’d promised to be in his earlier victories against his own age group and it’s quite possible he could have improved his rating further still had he had further opportunities on turf. Had he done so, perhaps he would have backed up his trainer’s conviction that he was the best he’s ever trained. But the Breeders’ Cup Classic was his final race, Coolmore being in the rare position of retiring two Derby winners to stud this year. At €75,000, City of Troy’s fee is more than twice that of Auguste Rodin who will be standing for €30,000.

Like Auguste Rodin, City of Troy is out of a Fillies’ Mile winner, the 2014 winner Together Forever who was runner-up in the Musidora, seventh in the Oaks and fourth in the Irish Oaks in her three starts the following year. Together Forever is a sister to the 2018 Oaks winner Forever Together and a half-sister to a third Group 1 winner, Lord Shanakill, who won the Prix Jean Prat. City of Troy’s two-year-old half-sister Takemetothemoon (by Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Uncle Mo) looks open to improvement after contesting a couple of maidens in October.

It’s worth remembering that City of Troy was also a winner at the Timeform Awards in 2023 when named Leading two-year-old. He wasn’t quite as dominant at three but delivered on the promise he’d shown then to become a classic winner, if not a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, and kept his place as the leader of his generation, his rating also bettering all the older horses in Europe too. He was a top-class performer who captured the public’s imagination and whose achievements saw him voted Horse of the Year by Timeform staff.