The apparent paucity of opposition to City Of Troy in Saturday’s Coral Eclipse could see Aidan O’Brien’s Derby hero start the shortest-priced favourite for Sandown’s historic highlight in more than half a century.
Ironically, the colt acclaimed by O’Brien as the best he’s ever trained might have had a more strenuous examination in last Sunday’s Irish Derby although the prospect of testing City Of Troy over 10 furlongs meant he was always going to skip the Curragh.
However, this week’s defection of the senior star White Birch looks to have robbed much of the competitive appeal from this Eclipse with layers already offering cramped 1/3 odds about the favourite.
Of City Of Troy’s seven opponents, just three, including his stable companion Hans Andersen on pacemaker duty, are older horses. Of the best of the rest, Ghostwriter finished fourth in both the Guineas and French Derby while Dancing Gemini has ground to make up from Epsom.
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Brigadier Gerard won the Eclipse as a 4/11 favourite in 1972 while other legendary names such as Mill Reef and Dancing Brave have won too at odds-on.
Golden Horn (2015), Sea The Stars (2009) and Nashwan (1989) are the last three Derby winners to follow up at Sandown although “SP” is hardly any guarantee considering Motivator (2/5) got turned over by Oratorio in 2005.
The latter is one of O’Brien’s record seven Eclipse successes with star names on the list like Giant Causeway, So You Think and Paddington a year ago. But the Irishman has made no secret how he believes City Of Troy to be at another level again.
The credibility of such a view was always impeccable but turned bombproof after a transformative Epsom success following City Of Troy’s spectacular Guineas flop four weeks previously.
Rarely has racing’s “Blue Riband” been won by a colt still giving unmistakable signs of relative rawness, none more so than Ryan Moore’s struggle to pull him up past the line.
Not surprisingly, O’Brien has said the apple of his eye has grown up considerably for the experience and the only crib for many will be the lack of a really credible opponent to test City Of Troy this time.
O’Brien’s son Joseph is pitching his 2022 National Stakes winner Al Riffa into the fray, and he is the only other proven Group One winner in the field. But even with an uncertain weather outlook holding the potential for easier ground conditions, everything else still looks likely to be fighting for second.
City Of Troy is the first of O’Brien’s 10 Derby winners to contest the Eclipse and he said: “I’m sure we considered the Eclipse for our other Derby winners, but I’m not sure any of them had the pace he had at two. They were all great horses, but he was champion two-year-old and won a Dewhurst.
“He had that profile from the very first day he raced, and he has just looked different. He’s unique for us in what he is already, and I suppose we have to try to help him and guide him in the right direction and help him perform to the best of his ability.”
Should he live up to his official 124 rating – at least 11lb clear of everything else – then winning this should be a straightforward exercise.
O’Brien’s readiness too to already project past Sandown towards possible attempts at the Juddmonte or the Irish Champion Stakes, with an ultimate tilt at the Breeders Cup Class also on the cards, underlines a sense of stepping-stone about this Eclipse.
Admittedly, such presumption has been known to backfire. The 2007 Derby winner Authorized started 4/7 for his Eclipse, won the race on his side of the course, but still couldn’t edge out an isolated Notnowcato on the stands side rail under an inspired ride.
It was Ryan Moore who delivered that spin on Notnowcato and he is again on board Ballydoyle’s paragon.
“We clearly saw the two-year-old version at Epsom when he was brilliant in beating Ambiente Friendly and Los Angeles, and the Irish Derby put that performance into an even more favourable context,” Moore has reported.
This Eclipse context looks one where anything but an impressive City Of Troy success will be the angle.
