Star horse City Of Troy compared to the all-time great Frankel after winning easily at Newmarket
WHEN the F-word is on everyone’s lips you know you’ve seen something pretty special.
And, for once, I’m not talking about Frankie.
PACity Of Troy was a hugely impressive winner of the Dewhurst at Newmarket[/caption]
If ever a horse has deserved to be mentioned in the same breath as Frankel after just three starts, it is probably City Of Troy.
Don’t just take my word for it – this is coming from the very top.
“This is our Frankel, I’m telling you,” Coolmore’s Michael Tabor said to anyone who would listen after the colt’s stunning Dewhurst win.
There have, of course, been several false dawns since the greatest racehorse of all time bagged this very Group 1 at Newmarket back in 2010.
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Think Air Force Blue, who could barely raise a gallop as a three-year-old, and Dawn Approach, who won the 2000 Guineas before completely losing the plot.
This one feels different, from the way City Of Troy goes about his business, to Ryan Moore’s broad grin to the look of astonishment on Aidan O’Brien’s face.
O’Brien wouldn’t hesitate to poke fun at himself, and he’d probably admit he has been hasty in trotting out the “best we’ve ever had” line over the years.
He didn’t quite go that far this time, but he was adamant that he’s never trained a better two-year-old.
That’s quite a statement, especially as he has won seven other Dewhursts this century with some proper good’uns.
Perhaps, in his words, it’s because City Of Troy never gets tired.
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You’ve heard of the bionic man, well this is the bionic racehorse who will gallop all day, every day.
That’s going to stand him in good stead heading into next season, when everything from the Guineas to the St Leger will be on the table.
It won’t come as a surprise that he is already a short price for the first Classic of next year, while he is just 10-1 to become the first horse since Nijinsky to win the Triple Crown.
Given how long it took Moore to pull him up after his three and a half length defeat of Alyanaabi, you’d be pretty confident he would stay a mile and a half at least.
On his debut at the Curragh, he was so strong through the line that his jockey couldn’t stop him before he ran clean through a fence at the bottom of the track.
And for a few seconds after this victory you thought the same thing was going to happen, except this time he’d end up in Cambridge city centre.
Credit to Alyanaabi and Eben Shaddad, who briefly looked like they’d give him a race, but the way City Of Troy forged clear close home was the stuff of champions.
A different F-word was probably going through O’Brien’s mind when he saw the rain hammering down at Newmarket on Friday night – but no matter.
O’Brien said: “He would have absolutely hated that ground and the stride on him is incredible, but he just never gets tired.
“We had nowhere else to run him and thank goodness we ran him.
“I wasn’t tense beforehand as I said to everyone he could get beat. He was entitled to get beat on that soft ground, but he just never gets tired.
“I’ve never seen a horse that doesn’t get tired. You think he is going to stop and then he just goes again.
“You need tractor tyres to go on that ground today and he hasn’t got that, but what he has is a jet engine and that jet engine just pushes him through it.
“He is the best two-year-old we’ve had, and I’m not sure we’ve ever had anything like him.”
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