City Of Troy has a binary form line of 111-01 after his smooth and comprehensive success in the Derby at Epsom on Saturday, and when his racing career concludes – hopefully in November 2025, but perhaps more plausibly in five months’ time – the zero in the 2,000 Guineas last month may well prove to have been every bit as significant as any of the ones.
There is an alternate reality in which City Of Troy did not get upset in the stalls before the Guineas and remains unbeaten, and in which this column is discussing the pros and cons of sending him to the St Leger at Doncaster in September, the final leg of the Triple Crown.
But he did and he isn’t, and as much as many of us would love to see another attempt at the Triple Crown – the atmosphere on Town Moor as Camelot went to post in 2012 was extraordinary – the possibilities for City Of Troy in the here and now are equally compelling.
The success on Saturday – and City Of Troy’s subsequent anointing by Aidan O’Brien as the best of his 10 Derby winners – was a double‑win for the Coolmore Stud syndicate that owns him. They have another exceptional stallion prospect when the time comes, who will earn a huge multiple of Saturday’s £800,000 first prize in covering fees before any of his foals even see a track. The effect on his sire Justify’s fee, meanwhile, could be just as dramatic.
The path that “the lads” in the syndicate map out for the Derby winner now will be as much about Justify as it is about City Of Troy. The latest star of the Coolmore roster has sired Grade One and Group One winners on dirt and turf in his first two crops, and now has a winner of the most prestigious European Classic.
Justify is already well on the way towards being the first dual-purpose stallion of Flat racing’s global era, capable of siring high-class middle‑distance winners whatever the surface and conditions. The remainder of City Of Troy’s career could conceivably complete the process.
There was talk of a run in the 10-furlong Travers Stakes at Saratoga in late August before City Of Troy’s flop in the Guineas and the potential payoff from a win in America’s “Midsummer Derby”, against a field that could well include the Kentucky Derby winner, Mystik Dan, would be huge.
It would be a gamble, of course. There are more traditional targets for a Derby winner, including the Irish Derby, the Eclipse in July, the International Stakes at York in August and, in early September, the Irish Champion Stakes.
The Travers, though, is also a natural springboard to the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race that has been unfinished business for Ballydoyle and Coolmore ever since Giant’s Causeway’s narrow defeat behind Tiznow in a race for the ages nearly a quarter of a century ago.
City Of Troy was quoted at about 8-1 for the Triple Crown before his flop in the Guineas. He is now the same sort of price to become the first horse to win the Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and with all due respect to Doncaster and the St Leger, that would be an achievement to surpass even a Triple Crown.
The Jockey Club said in a statement on Wednesday that Nevin Truesdale, who took over as the Club’s chief executive following the controversial departure of Delia Bushell in August 2020, has asked its Board of Stewards to start the process of finding a successor and is expected to step down from the role at the end of 2024.
Truesdale has been the chief executive of British racing’s biggest commercial operation, with responsibility for events including the Cheltenham Festival, the Grand National and the Derby, during a turbulent period both for the Jockey Club and the sport as a whole.
He took over as acting chief executive a month after the resumption of racing behind closed doors during the Covid-19 pandemic, and was confirmed in the role from 1 January 2021, overseeing the eventual return of full crowds to racecourses.
Truesdale also launched an petition against government proposals to introduce affordability checks for online gambling, which received more than 100,000 signatures and triggered a parliamentary debate, and initiated legal action against the animal rights group, Animal Rising, when it threatened to disrupt the Derby at Epsom last year.
Truesdale’s departure follows a series of disappointing crowd figures at the Jockey Club’s marquee events, including an 18% drop in attendance at the Cheltenham Festival between 2022 and 2024, and a 13.6% drop in the same period at the Grand National Festival at Aintree. Paid attendance at the Derby has also decreased by around 25% since 2022.
Sandy Dudgeon, who will be replaced as senior steward of the Jockey Club by Baroness Dido Harding next month, said in a statement on Wednesday that Truesdale had taken over as chief executive “at an extremely challenging and unprecedented time both for the business and the whole racing industry and steered us successfully out of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and cost of living crisis.”
Truesdale said in a statement that working in the role had been “a true privilege and a career highlight”, adding: “I will miss it immensely when the time comes to leave but until that point, I am absolutely focused on continuing to lead and deliver on our priorities.”
City Of Troy was certainly one of the more memorable Derby winners of recent years, and could yet prove to be one of the more significant of recent decades, so it took a little of the shine off the day to hear that his victory was watched by a paying attendance of “about 27,000”. That is around 25% down on the figure of 37,274 just two years ago, and only slightly higher than the 2023 total of 25,413.
Jockey Club Racecourses, which runs Epsom, can fairly point out that a number of factors can explain the sudden drop in ticket sales since 2022, when the Derby was part of the late Queen’s platinum Jubilee celebrations. The cost of living crisis, clearly, continues to exert a significant effect, while there were no trains to Epsom in 2023 and the race was also up against the FA Cup final.
It is also possible to attend the Derby for free, so the official attendance tells only a part of the story and is also subject to significant variations from year-to-year. The official number to see Dr Devious land the Classic in 1992, for instance, when the recently un-retired Lester Piggott was aboard the favourite, Rodrigo De Triano, was just 26,178.
Haydock 2.05 It’s All About You 2.35 Arabian Cobra 3.05 The Good Biscuit (nb) 3.35 Grace Angel 4.05 Taramasalata 4.40 Forever Blue 5.10 Alfie Boy
Uttoxeter 2.13 Artiste D’Ainay 2.43 Kilta 3.13 Just Dottie 3.43 Jaramillo 4.18 Edison Kent 4.50 Hattons Gardens 5.20 Defence Witness
Hamilton 2.25 Liberalised 2.55 Huddle Up 3.25 Kelpie Grey (nap) 3.55 Bur Dubai
4.30 Flight Of Angels 5.05 Hot Team
Chelmsford 5.15 Number 5.45 Enchanted Eye 6.15 Merry Minister 6.45 Marefuori 7.15 Ten Dimes 7.45 Mighty Nebula 8.15 Divine Breath 8.45 Sergeants Legacy
But you can see just from looking at the Hill from the stands that numbers have been ebbing away year-on-year, and the punters seemed to be spread more thinly than ever on Saturday.
Market Rasen 1.48 Trudie Glen 2.18 Imperial Rule 2.48 Supreme Yeats 3.18 Star Legend 3.48 Hecouldbetheone 4.20 Isholo Du Vivien 4.50 Cofficionado
Thirsk 1.38 Mythical 2.08 Ebt’s Guard 2.38 Jacquelina 3.08 Keldeo (nap) 3.38 Noel Fox 4.08 Noisy Music 4.40 Atomise (nb)
Brighton 2.00 Heer’s Sadie 2.30 Duran 3.00 Kondratiev Wave 3.30 Three Dons 4.00 Mrembo 4.30 Conquest Of Power 5.05 Katie G
Haydock 5.28 Virtual Hug 5.58 Gulf Legend 6.28 King’s Reign 6.58 Cold Stare 7.28 Thursday’s Child 8.03 Seagulls Eleven 8.38 Amancio
Bath 5.45 Midnight Flame 6.15 Lady With The Lamp 6.45 Buddy’s Beauty 7.15 Cherry Cola 7.50 Continuance 8.25 Jimmy Mark 9.00 Johnjay
Goodwood 6.05 Lunario 6.35 D Flawless 7.05 Alpine Girl 7.35 Royal Velvet 8.10 Cabinet Of Clowns 8.45 Dancing In Paris
Very few of the paying racegoers from 2022, or those in the regular crowds of between 35,000 and 39,000 in the immediate pre-Covid seasons, have opted to save the admission price by standing on the Hill. Instead, the decline in ticket sales seems to reflect a more general decline in interest, and the Derby now joins the other crown jewels in the Jockey Club’s crown – the Festival meetings at Cheltenham and Aintree – on the list of events in urgent need of attention.
