City Of Troy ran out a brilliant winner of the Native Trail’s Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.
The 8/15 favourite was racing for the first time since running away with the Superlative Stakes across the road in July and raised the bar even higher on Saturday.
Ryan Moore jumped out and made all the running aboard the son of Justify and two out he began to go through the gears. It was upon meeting the rising ground that the overdrive kicked in and the superstar colt bounded clear of his rivals to win a widening three-and-a-half lengths.
Alyanaabi (6/1) ran a cracker to finish second with Eben Shaddad (25/1) third but this was a one-horse contest from the moment Moore pressed the button.
Bookmaker reaction was swift with Sky Bet cutting him to 5/4 from 5/2 for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and leaving him unchanged at 7/2 for the Betfred Derby. Betfair and Paddy Power are 5/4 from 5/2 for Newmarket and make him their 9/4 favourite for the Epsom Classic.
Moore told ITV Racing: “He’s got such a lovely action. These wouldn’t be his ideal conditions today. Aidan has got belief in this horse and the way he performed on the July Course, I couldn’t really see anything else in the race that could do that and he would have too much ability for them.
“He had been off since July and I think he had forgotten a little bit. He was very, very good in the last furlong and a half today and he is a very, very good colt. When I rode him on the July Course and the first day at the Curragh – at the Curragh he did something no horse has ever done to me before (nearly running off the course as he couldn’t be pulled up) and on the July Course I thought no horse has ever been this good at that point of their career.
“He was good today off the back of a long layoff on ground he wouldn’t have liked. There is a massive engine there and he is as exciting a two-year-old as I have ever ridden.”
Burrows proud of runner-up
Trainer Owen Burrows said of the runner-up Alyanaabi: “Jim (Crowley) said he wasn’t in love with the ground, but I don’t think Aidan’s horse was either. I’m very pleased and it was a good solid run. We said it was perhaps the ground at Ascot, but it might have been that he went a bit weak on us and he wasn’t quite himself that day.
“There is only one Dewhurst so you have to have a go at it. He has not let us down and he has run a great race. It is a long time until the 2000 Guineas and hopefully it will be faster ground, but it looks like Aidan’s horse will be better on faster ground.
“However, you can’t run away from one horse. It hasn’t dented my faith in him as he still remains a good horse as up there as one of the best two-year-olds in this country. We can’t be too disappointed.”
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