City Of Troy’s reputation means merely winning Saturday’s Native Trails Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket mightn’t fulfil expectations surrounding Aidan O’Brien’s latest two-year-old sensation.
It is all of three months since City Of Troy created a huge impression when landing the Superlative Stakes at Newmarket’s July course.
In the interim nothing has either threatened his status as favourite for next year’s Classics or diluted O’Brien’s belief that even by his own stellar standards he’s got something unusual on his hands here.
That the Irishman is pursuing a record-equalling eighth Dewhurst victory indicates the rarefied context of such optimism.
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The Dewhurst has traditionally been the defining two-year-old test of the season, with even last year’s comparatively unremarkable winner Chaldean proceeding to Guineas glory.
It is 13 years since the mighty Frankel ended his own juvenile career on a high in a race with a superb roll-of-honour that’s crammed with Irish winners.
City Of Troy is the latest example of potential superstardom getting put to the test on the venerable Rowley Mile and represents something of a throwback in some respects.
As an American-bred son of a US Triple Crown winner in Justify, he harks back to when Vincent O’Brien brought expensive emerging talents such as Nijinsky, El Gran Senor and Storm Bird to the Dewhurst from his Ballydoyle academy.
City Of Troy is a Coolmore homebred but the same sense of nervous expectation about him living up to his exalted billing and going into the winter as favourite for the 2024 Classics still exists.
Admittedly, the Dewhurst record is also littered with examples of precocious brilliance failing to train on – O’Brien’s 2015 winner Air Force Blue being a stinging example – but expectations appear different around City Of Troy.
Even among a particularly good crop of Ballydoyle two-year-old talent the son of Justify appears to stand out.
There was no arguing with the visual impression made in the Superlative, where he stretched away in such style that Classic options from the 2,000 Guineas to the Kentucky Derby were immediately mooted for him.
If anything, absence has only inflated anticipation around the colt. Withdrawn from the Curragh’s National Stakes just minutes before the race due to soft going, there will be no hiding place on Newmarket’s vast expanse where seven opponents include his stable companion Henry Adams.
The latter is Frankie Dettori’s sole mount of the day, although it is the smart pair Iberian and Alyanaabi that are likely to provide more of a meaningful test of City Of Troy’s mettle.
Victory for either of his runners will see O’Brien emulate the Dewhurst tally of both John Porter in the 19th century and Frank Butters in the first half of the last century.
The ‘Future Champions Day’ theme will also see Chief Little Rock in the earlier Autumn Stakes, and Gaspar De Lemos in the Zetland Stakes, try to underline the strength of O’Brien’s juvenile team.
Added to the Newmarket mix, though, is one of the season’s traditional big handicap prizes, where Willie Mullins has a record equalling success of his own to pursue.
Ireland’s champion jumps trainer landed the Cesarewitch three years in a row between 2018 and 2020 and has a handful of runners to try and emulate the legendary 19th century pair of Matthew Dawson and William Day, who each won the marathon contest four times.
Rachael Blackmore has been drafted in and will team up with Jackfinbar while another regular Mullins ally, William Buick, is on Lot Of Joy.
However, given Ryan Moore’s success with Mullins over the years, and how he is set to team up with Vauban in the upcoming Melbourne Cup, plenty will be swayed by the English jockey’s decision to opt for another Irish hope, Pied Piper. The fact he’s trained by Mullins’s great rival Gordon Elliott is likely to only reinforce such a view.
Run For Oscar’s sauntering success in 2022 underlined recent Irish dominance in the Cesarewitch and among the 10 raiders this time is The Shunter for whom Emmet Mullins has engaged leading cross-channel rider James Doyle.
The Shunter, a Cheltenham Festival winner over fences in 2021, hasn’t been seen in action since a fourth on the flat over an inadequate trip in Gowran in August.
