it's nearly all about aidan, coolmore & CITY OF TROY.

​City of Troy is very good. An obvious statement and his detractors now need to button it until after the Breeders Cup. But very good is all he is, at least at this stage of his career, even if I suspect he is nearly at the end of his career. Those people, and I include the hype machine that is the I.T.V. presenters, who insist on putting the laurel wreath of greatness around his shoulders should reflect on the true legends of the sport that have gone before him and overlay their achievements against what City of Troy has thus far accomplished.
He was, I admit, the dominant two-year-old of his generation, which set in motion grandiose plans for the future and dreams of Frankel incarnate. Of course, he went from hero to zero after the 2,000 Guineas, a display that Aidan blamed himself for and yet in comparison to his subsequent racecourse appearances might, in hindsight, have been the result of clever dopers or someone with a tranquilizer gun disguised as an umbrella or pair of binoculars. I jest but Aidan is not a bumbling idiot and makes so few public mistakes that it seems a stretch to believe he bungled City of Troy’s training to such devastating effect.
His Derby victory was impressive, albeit from what I believe was a substandard field, though most Derby fields these days are below what we perhaps enjoyed when Epsom staged their great race on a Wednesday and Derby Day was circled on many calendars hung at London addresses. His Eclipse victory was underwhelming, though I suspect Aidan had York in mind in the period post-Derby. Aidan blamed his workmanlike performance on the ground being on the soft-side, a poor excuse to my mind as he won like a steam-train on similar ground as a two-year-old, with Ryan Moore’s greatest difficulty being getting the horse to stop galloping after the finishing line.
The International proved to me, at long last, he is a genuinely good horse and not a horse talked-up by his trainer. He is not, though, a truly great horse, even if he is the best horse trained at Ballydoyle since Istabraq. It is a strange statement, given how Aidan strides colossus-like across the British and Irish racing scene, that he has waited all this time for a champion, and still waits in my opinion. He has trained champion milers and in Yeats, and perhaps Kyprios, he has trained two of the best stayers of all-time, with plenty of champion 2-year-olds thrown in as well, but no Frankel, in fact no middle-distance horse to get within hailing distance of the first or second-best flat horse of my lifetime, alongside Brigadier Gerard who the younger brigade of journalists are in danger of either overlooking or forgetting about entirely.
For City of Troy to claim the prestige of an all-time great, the Coolmore boys need to keep him in training as a four-year-old to prove himself better than the generation below him. He needs another Eclipse to his name, though more importantly to my mind, he needs a King George & Queen Elisabeth and an Arc on his c.v.. The Irish Champion Stakes now looks a formality for him, though from what I read the Breeders Cup at Del Mar will prove a more formidable obstacle to overcome as it is a tight, fast track which will not play to his strengths. Aidan has told us time and time again that City of Troy’s best attribute is his character, that alone is a good enough reason to keep him training as a four-year-old, that and the benefit it will bring to the sport. Frankel was kept in training at 4, as was Baaeed. Over to you, lads. If you want a Frankel, you must campaign him like Frankel.

The Doncaster St.Leger is not yet dead, it is though in a critical condition. If it were not for Coolmore and Aidan, the race would be in cardiac arrest. Something needs to be done about it. There are only fifteen-horses still in the race, though there is always the possibility of supplementary entries between now and the five-day declaration stage. Nine of those fifteen are trained by Aidan O’Brien. Jesse Harrington trains one of the other six, which makes the St.Leger booked for export.
The other problem for the St. Leger is that it no longer attracts or is won by great horses. I would argue you have to go back to 1987 for a top-notch three-year-old to win the race, Reference Point. Continuous might buck the trend as he might spring a surprise and win the Arc. But Eldar Eldarove, Galileo Chrome, Kew Gardens, Capri, Harbour Law, Simple Verse, Kingston Hill, Leading Light, Enke – the list of not-so-great classic winners goes on and on.
Something needs to be done about it and what is needed is something radical and in line with modern thinking. The Eclipse should be upgraded to classic status and, of course, confined to three-year-olds and the St.Leger should be opened-up to both geldings and older horses. Whether the St.Leger remains a classic, a sixth classic, I am open-minded about, though it should remain at 14-furlongs, with enough money on offer for it to act as both an alternative to the Arc and a race to attract the Ascot and Goodwood Cup type horses.