Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 4 November 2024

There will be plenty of discussion and debate following the defeat of City Of Troy in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, with those who felt he faced a difficult task feeling vindicated.

It was very quickly apparent that he would struggle, missing the break and soon in arrears although the winner Sierra Leone was actually just behind him at halfway. However unlike him he was not grabbing the ground and was unable to get a proper grip on the surface.

The case for him beforehand was made that his sire Justify was a Triple Crown winner on the dirt, but to her great credit Racing TV’s Rachel Candelora had warned viewers that since retiring to stud only two of the sire’s seven Group or Grade 1 winners had been on the dirt, the other five on turf, and that this season he is currently second highest on the list for turf earnings but just 24th for dirt earnings.

I was not sure what to expect. I selected Newgate each-way, who ran well to finish fourth, but took the view that if City Of Troy was as good as Aidan O’Brien believed he could win despite the surface.

One thing that I had expressed misgivings about was the extraordinary hype that preceded him, with the Coolmore team attired in gilets bearing his name. Horses with superior form had run at the meeting before and he owed his status in the build-up primarily to the well-publicised belief his trainer had in him.

This wasn’t the result the media wanted, even though Coolmore still came out on the right side through their ownership of the winner and their having acquired stallion rights to the runner-up.

This isn’t the first time that a highly-vaunted horse from Ballydoyle has failed to live up to the trainer’s expectations but it is certainly the most dramatic and public fall from grace.

I have no doubt that O’Brien is sincere in his publicised views on his horses, and he is quick to apportion the blame on to himself if a horse runs below expectations. It would be a shame if his experience in Del Mar was to curb his enthusiasm, which is refreshing and endearing, in contrast to the taciturn manner with which his stable jockey usually responds to approaches.

However a horse is ultimately judged on his record.

Frankel was unbeaten in 14 starts, 10 of them at Group 1 level. Nijinsky was the last horse to win the Triple Crown, and Sea The Stars won a Group 1 races every month of his three-year-old career from May through to October.

There are many other examples of great equine achievement, but for all the enterprise of Coolmore in trying to win the Classic, the record of City Of Troy does not afford him a place alongside the true greats of equine achievement.

Bye for now

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