City Of Troy tops 14 contenders for 2000 Guineas gold

Rosallion, Ghostwriter and Night Raider among potential challengers to hot favourite.

City Of Troy will face a maximum of 13 rivals when he puts his unbeaten record and huge reputation on the line in the Qipco 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on Saturday.

The Justify colt carried all before him as a juvenile, with debut success at the Curragh followed by successive Newmarket wins in the the Superlative and the Dewhurst Stakes, with trainer Aidan O’Brien stating after the latter success: “He is the best two-year-old we’ve trained, there’s no doubt.”

City Of Troy will be prohibitive odds to provide the master of Ballydoyle with an 11th victory in the first colts’ Classic of the season on Saturday, but will find several talented rivals lying in wait.

The clear-second favourite is the Richard Hannon-trained Rosallion, not seen since landing the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp in October, while Clive Cox’s Royal Lodge hero Ghostwriter is another who brings high-class course and distance form to the table.

One of the most intriguing runners is undoubtedly Night Raider, who has twice dominated his rivals on the all-weather at Southwell and trainer Karl Burke is in no doubt he possesses the required ability to make the huge step up to the top level this weekend.

He said: “He’s a lovely animal and whatever he does on Saturday, he’s going to keep improving through the year. He’s got a lot of scope, he’s a high-class animal and I’m sure he’s a Group One horse in the making.

“Whether Saturday comes a bit too soon for him, and obviously it’s a high-class race as well, we’ll have to wait and see, but he’s a horse with a lot of potential and a lot of ability – I don’t think I’ve seen a horse work better up the Polytrack in Middleham in the 23 years since we’ve been here.

“He’s just got an awfully high cruising speed and he can quicken off it as well. Clifford Lee rode him for the first time in a long time this morning and he said it’s like driving a car with 10 gears – every time you time you move on him he goes forward.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing him run, there’s no real pressure with him. There’s a few horses with bigger reputations than him going into it and hopefully we can burst a few balloons.”

Night Raider following his racecourse gallop at Newmarket
Night Raider following his racecourse gallop at Newmarket (Adam Morgan/PA)

While Burke insists he has the “utmost respect” for the opposition, the Spigot Lodge handler is certainly not running scared.

He added: “Rosallion put up a fantastic performance in France, the negative for him is the rain that’s about this week – Richard has stated that he doesn’t want soft ground for the horse and I don’t think it will be any better than proper good ground. He’s obviously a high-class horse and I know his owner Sheikh Mohammed Obaid (owner) is very excited by him.

“When Night Raider won first time up at Southwell, there was a lot of talk about it being the eighth best debut of the year, so I went back and watched the other seven debuts, including City Of Troy’s, and he got four or five good smacks on the backside to go and win his maiden.

“How much improvement is there, I don’t know. He’s obviously won very impressively, but he’s been asked to go and do his job.

“Our fellow possesses a lot of speed and I hope we’re drawn near City Of Troy so we can sit and follow him through the race.”

Another unknown quantity is Charlie Appleby’s Notable Speech, who has not been seriously troubled in three starts so far on the all-weather at Kempton.

Other likely contenders include Dewhurst runner-up Alyanaabi, trained by Owen Burrows, Ralph Beckett’s Middle Park second Task Force and Hannon’s Craven winner Haatem.

O’Brien has also left in Henry Longfellow and River Tiber alongside City Of Troy, although the former is widely expected to wait for the French 2000 Guineas the following weekend.

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