EPSOM, England — Favourite City of Troy, ridden by Ryan Moore, won the 245th Epsom Derby to give trainer Aidan O’Brien a record- extending 10th success in British racing event.
The 3-1 favourite, last year’s champion juvenile, came to Epsom Downs after disappointing in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket but surged into the lead off the bend and galloped across the line.
“To be honest, it wasn’t very exciting,” Ryan Moore, City Of Troy’s jockey, said according to Reuters.
There was a very early drama as Voyage, the least experienced runner in the field, unshipped Pat Dobbs just after the start, and the loose horse soon worked his way to the front of the field.
A more immediate concern for Moore, who was towards the rear of the field from a tricky draw in stall one, was navigating a passage down the hill towards Tattenham Corner.
City Of Troy was racing around a bend for the first time in his life, but he responded instantly as Moore steered around an outsider dropping back through the field, and having turned for home around four lengths behind his stable companions, Los Angeles and Euphoric, needed only a furlong to surge into the lead over two out.
Ambiente Friendly, the second-favourite, soon emerged from the pack to give chase but for practical purposes, the riderless Voyage was the only remaining obstacle to City Of Troy as he came home an easy winner.
Last year’s Derby, when Auguste Rodin bounced back from a 2,000 Guineas blowout of his own, was the obvious place to start the post-race analysis, but City Of Troy’s victory was in many respects an even more remarkable about-turn in form.
He showed nothing at Newmarket, and his supporters were in effect staking their cash on O’Brien’s enduring belief in last year’s unbeaten champion juvenile, and the trainer’s conviction too that the Guineas flop was explained by City Of Troy getting upset in the stalls.
“Before he had a chance to get his breath back, he was out and gone,” O’Brien said.
“It was two, two and a half weeks before we could put him in the stalls, and we had a FitBit on him and his heart rate went way above 240, standing in the stalls. For us, then we knew what happened at Newmarket. The next day, the FitBit showed he was calmer, a totally different heart profile.
“I think I left him too fresh and wasn’t hard enough on him during the winter. We hadn’t put him into the stalls because we never thought something like that could happen. You’re learning every year but the problem is, with a horse like that to make a mistake, it can cost so much.”
City Of Troy’s victory was a record-extending 10th Derby winner for O’Brien, and the trainer suggested that he is also the best yet, surpassing even his first winner, Galileo, in 2001.
Galileo was Europe’s dominant stallion for nearly 20 years until his death in July 2021, and City Of Troy, a son of Justify, the US Triple Crown winner on dirt in 2018, could yet prove to be equally important to the Coolmore Stud operation that supplies O’Brien with much of his ammunition.
“For us, Justify is the most incredible horse we have had,” O’Brien said.
“The great stallion we had was Galileo. Justifys are Galileos with more class, which is a very hard thing to say, but we see it every day.
“The stride, the minds, the movement of them, they are quicker than Galileos, which makes them unbelievably exciting for us.”
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