Unexpectedly, Notable Speech emerged victorious in the Qipco 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket, while City Of Troy was unable to make an impact.
Following an undefeated juvenile campaign that culminated in an impressive victory in the Dewhurst Stakes, Aidan O'Brien's colt was sent off the 4-6 favourite.
However, he appeared to be under pressure from Ryan Moore early on and eventually dropped out of the race, giving 16-1 shot Notable Speech the advantage.
The Charlie Appleby-trained chestnut easily won by a length and a half under William Buick's guidance, pulling away in the last furlong.
The pair trained by Richard Hannon, Rosallion and Haatem, shared the minor honours at the line, with a length and a quarter separating them.
Before his triumph in the Classic, Notable Speech had only raced on the all-weather track and had not run as a juvenile. He had won all three of his races at Kempton.
“You don’t see too many come off an all-weather success to a Guineas success, we’ve given him all the time, thinking he was a good horse,” Appleby said.
“He was given that time, a few lads sat on him last year in August time, when you start to see these horses developing more, and they were just saying ‘he’s a nice horse’. He was still far too weak to do anything with, as always I’m in the very privileged position to be allowed to give the horses the time that they need, with no pressure. He came out on the all-weather there and we all know what he did – he was three from three – in that last start, I think he put a bit of a ‘wow factor’ into what he achieved, with his acceleration.”
Appleby acknowledged that he lacked confidence in his ability to defeat City of Troy, but that racecourse workout from a month ago gave him a lot of motivation.
He added: “William was very impressed with him after this last start and when we brought him here for the racecourse gallop, he put that ‘wow factor’ back in. I worked with him on a good horse. I told William I was going to put some speed into the gallop and he fired this horse into the dip and out of it, and he flew out of it – Will said he didn’t even know it was there. We came here after that with confidence that we had the right horse to be here. I wasn’t saying he was going to win a Guineas off the back of what City Of Troy had done as a two-year-old, but I just felt we had the right horse to be in the field and be competitive.”
Now that Appleby is determined to keep the Godolphin-owned colt to a mile, Royal Ascot appears to be the likely next stop.