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When it comes to the iconic Derby at Epsom, Aidan O’Brien is often the man to follow in the online horse racing betting market. The master trainer at Coolmore’s Ballydoyle stables in County Tipperary has won flat racing’s showpiece event on 10 occasions, more than any handler in the race’s 245-year history.
His impressive list of winners includes Galileo, who has since been crowned the Leading Sire in Great Britain and Ireland on 12 occasions, Camelot, Ruler Of The World, Australia and 2023 champion Aguste Rodin.
However, despite a stellar roll of honour that includes equine stars that have gone on to win multiple Group/Grades races and even further Classics, as well as producing various champions in the progeny when their racing days are over, O’Brien claimed that City Of Troy is his greatest Derby successor.
“I’d say there’s no doubt he’s the best Derby winner we’ve had,” O’Brien said after his stable star raced to an emphatic victory over Ambiente Friendly. “He has the cruise, he has the balance, he quickens and he stays.”
While City Of Troy’s 2000 Guineas implosion will hang over his head, as he finished ninth of 11 runners in the first Classic of the season despite setting off as the heavy favourite at Newmarket in May, O’Brien was also quick to shoulder the blame for the performance after the Derby.
“We knew the Guineas went totally wrong. I made mistakes training him and that’s the bottom line,” O’Brien added. “There were stones that I should have looked under that I didn’t. He was too fresh, was unprepared and blew up in the stalls when he went in – that’s the reality of it.
“I knew the ability he had but I left him too fresh going into the Guineas and he just wasn’t prepared properly. Since then, everything has been beautiful and he really grew up. The incredible thing is the cruise he has and the ability he has, it’s so exciting for everybody.”
Indeed, City Of Troy needs to carry on firing now he has righted the wrongs of that Guineas display and add a few more high-profile wins to his CV to become a true great like many of his predecessors in the illustrious Coolmore ranks.
However, his Derby victory was sensational, and on that alone, City Of Troy has already earned his place in racing folklore regardless of what he goes on to achieve down the line of his career before ultimately being retired to stud and producing future champions.
Full faith was restored in City Of Troy by the bookmakers as he was priced as the 3/1 favourite for the Derby despite once drifting as far out as 10/1 following the lacklustre Guineas display, and he justified being at the fore of the market with a performance that left racing fans and pundits in awe.
Held up in the rear by Ryan Moore in the early stages, City Of Troy moved into midfield with around a mile to go at Epsom and started to make good headway up the inside from three furlongs out. He was ridden to lead with two to go and kept on well inside the final furlong to win comfortably.
It was a performance reminiscent of Auguste Rodin’s Derby redemption 12 months earlier, as he too capitulated in the Guineas before bouncing back in Surrey.
You could see how much hard work O’Brien put into City Of Troy from a training perspective to get him back to that stellar two-year-old form, and it was evident how much the victory meant to him.
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