Coral-Eclipse reflections: Good but not great yet

The problem with expectations is that they are so hard to live up.

That meant it all felt a tad underwhelming after City of Troy had won the Coral-Eclipse Stakes by a length from Al Riffa at Sandown.

Yes, the Aidan O’Brien-trained 1/4 favourite never looked like losing once Ryan Moore had driven him to lead in the last quarter mile as he became the 11th Derby winner to land the Eclipse in the same season.

His victory meant he joined a stellar list of Derby and Eclipse winners which include Mill Reef, Nashwan, Sea The Stars – all galloping greats.

But the frisson of excitement that we all craved, that tangible evidence of something special was missing.

The Sandown racegoers that packed round the paddock and craned their necks to get a glimpse of the colt hailed as a superstar were noticeably silent as he returned to the winner’s enclosure. They responded with polite applause rather than raucous cheering.

While joint owner John Magnier, the man seen as the brains behind the overwhelming success of Ireland’s dominant Coolmore Stud, conceded that City of Troy’s performance was ‘not quite what we were expecting, although you can’t make excuses when you win’.

Magnier’s presence at Sandown was an indication of how big a deal City of Troy has become to Coolmore.

Magnier was attending his first Eclipse since O’Brien’s So You Think won the £750,000 mile and a quarter race for him and his Coolmore Stud partners Derrick Smith and Michael Tabor in 2011.

Alongside him was wife Sue, the lady who gets to name most of the Coolmore Stud equine armoury. It was the first time she had set foot on a British track for over 20 years.

Like us all they had travelled to Sandown, hoping to see something special but perhaps for now we should cut City of Troy a bit of slack.

The snap judgment would be to say he is no Frankel, partly because we want to be convinced by hard evidence as opposed to a sprinkle of superlatives which have been delivered with one eye on the Coolmore Stud marketing department and his future moneymaking stud career.

After all City of Troy’s record is not unblemished following his poor run in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May.

But sport does not religiously follow the script. Just down the road from Sandown, neither Novak Djokovic nor Carlos Alcaraz have strolled through the first week of Wimbledon effortlessly reeling off straight set victories.

There was unanimity in the City Of Troy camp that his Eclipse Stakes performance had been hindered by the rain-softened Sandown ground which had prompted two of his opponents – Jayarebe and Stay Alert – to be withdrawn.

O’Brien was adamant that the going was much softer than when City of Troy won the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket last October.

He was equally certain that had the race been 15 years ago, when Magnier and his fellow owners probably favoured commercial considerations over sporting ones, that City Of Troy would have joined the list of withdrawals.

Moore reckoned he had not been happy with City of Troy halfway around the home turn when his mount felt unbalanced and that it had taken him time to get the colt with its ‘exaggerated stride’ balanced again.

Magnier, one of the sport’s most respected voices, also advised against reading too much into the Eclipse run.

He said: ‘There is no point in us talking any more about him. He has to do it himself. It’s like his clothes are off and he is in the bed.

‘But I have seen what he has done at home and some of the times he has produced (on the gallops) without being asked. The hardest job has been pulling him up.’

The plan now looks to be that City of Troy will race two more times in Europe this season, first in York’s Juddmonte International Stakes in August and then the following month in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown.

Hopefully, the summer will finally arrive for him to get his preferred fast racing surface in one of those races.

After that it looks like it will be the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Dirt at Del Mar, California, for the son of US Triple Crown winner Justify.

Then will be the time when City of Troy and his standing in the pantheon of racing champions can be judged more fairly. For now we know he is good but it is a bit too early to be hailing him as a great.

That might have been what one Sandown spectator was telling her partner last night.

Among the racegoers taking a peak at City of Troy in the pre-parade ring was Lady Victoria Starmer.

Apparently her husband has a new job and he couldn’t join her at Sandown.

See, even the best roles have downsides...

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