Aidan O'Brien was unable to provide an explanation right away after City of Troy's bubble completely burst in the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.
The son of American Triple Crown hero Justify accomplished all that was expected of him as a two-year-old last season, crushing his rivals in the Superlative Stakes on the July Course and the Dewhurst on the Rowley Mile after his debut victory at the Curragh.
With nine Derby victories and ten 2000 Guineas victories under his incredible Classic record, O'Brien has never concealed his admiration for City of Troy. Following his victory at Dewhurst, he said: “We’ve never had a horse like him, that’s the way it is – he is the best two-year-old we’ve trained, there’s no doubt.”
Crowds gathered around the Newmarket parade ring to see the highly anticipated colt before he cantered down to post with the goal of becoming the first odds-on winner of the 2000 Guineas since Frankel 13 years ago, after what appeared to be a trouble-free run-up to his three-year-old debut.
Frankel, however, caused chaos in the starting stalls for City Of Troy, a 4-6 shot. Although he got off to a fast start and led the race, it was evident by halfway that he was having trouble maintaining the gallop, and he faltered late to finish ninth out of eleven.
“He got upset in the stalls before, which he never did before, then he jumped and Ryan just said the pace was on and he was in the middle of the pace and he just flattened on his first run,” O’Brien said. “We’ll see, it was unusual that he got upset in the stalls because he was very happy before. He was in last, but he wasn’t in last by design, that’s just the way the stall things fell. There’s no doubt about that (the run was too bad to be true), he wasn’t over-blowing. We’ll take him home and see, sorry about that. Of course (I’m shocked), obviously we wouldn’t be here if we thought he was going to do that. Obviously it’s not his run and we’ll see what happened and why it happened.”
Richard Hannon acknowledged that he was feeling conflicted after Rosallion and Haatem placed second and third, respectively.
In the run-up to the first Classic of the year, the East Everleigh handler had been optimistic about the chances of his Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Rosallion, and he travelled strongly for the most part of the race before seeking to save his best for the outstanding Notable Speech.
Rosallion’s Craven Stakes-winning stablemate Haatem also emerged with plenty of credit in picking up the bronze medal.
Hannon said: “Both my horses ran great races, I’m disappointed to get beaten but you can’t be disappointed by how they ran. Rosallion travelled so well and ran a huge race. I’m not going to lie, when I saw City Of Troy fading out of it I thought ‘there’s the main one gone’. I’m disappointed to get beaten, but maybe if he wins wherever we go now it will make it even sweeter. It’s probably one of the best Guineas there’s been for 10 years and both of my horses have shown they’re Group One horses – one (Rosallion) has won a Group One and the other one will, so there’s a lot to look forward to.”