Whatever went wrong last time out was corrected as City of Troy rolled to a 2 ¾-length victory in the $1.1 million Betfred (Epsom) Derby on Saturday at Epsom Racecourse.
City of Troy
City of Troy earns a classic win for his sire Justify in the Betfred Derby
The 3-year-old son of 2018 Triple Crown winner Justify was an inexplicable ninth of 11 in the Two Thousand Guineas (G1) at Newmarket last month.
“It was hard to know what would happen, but I was very sure we had the best horse,” winning jockey Ryan Moore told ITV Racing. “At Newmarket, it didn’t happen, and we can’t pretend we knew it would happen, but we do know he has a big engine.”
And it was all revved up on Saturday as trainer Aidan O’Brien earned a record-extending 10th victory in the race. It was Moore’s fourth win in the race.
City of Troy Overcomes Challenges to Secure Victory: O’Brien Reflects on Past Mistakes
City of Troy was sent off as the 3-1 favorite from post 1 and settled at the back of the field as stablemates Euphoric and Los Angeles set the pace. Voyage unseated rider Pat Dobbs at the start, kept running, and later intimidated several horses in the home straight.
“It was sensational. He was going to win very easily and then with the loose horse in front of him, he was still a bit unsure, but he galloped out strong,’’ O’Brien said. “He quickened well and kind of waited so you’d have to be delighted with what happened today.”
While City of Troy is likely to run in Europe through the summer, co-owner Michael Tabor of Coolmore said the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Del Mar in November is on the radar.
“It’s obviously on our mind,” Tabor said. “We’re going to sit down and think about it. It’s always been a passion of ours to try to win the Classic. We were second with Giant’s Causeway (in the race in 2000) and being by Justify you think surely, we’ll give it a try eventually. Although having said that we have Sierra Leone (in the U.S.) who will obviously be a horse for the Classic.”
Added O’Brien: “We knew the Guineas went totally wrong, I made mistakes training him and that’s the bottom line. There are stones that I didn’t look under. He was too fresh, was unprepared and that was the reality of it. We all know the facts and we spoke about it.”
Ambiente Friendly finished second, followed by Los Angeles, Deira Mile and Sayedaty Sadaty.
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