City Of Troy tops 11-strong list for 2000 Guineas

Nick Robson
May 2, 2024 9:57 am

Rosallion, Notable Speech and Night Raider among Newmarket rivals.

Ballydoyle’s potential superstar City Of Troy heads a field of 11 in Saturday’s Qipco 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket.

Unbeaten in three outings last season, he has sparked Triple Crown dreams once more for Aidan O’Brien and his Coolmore owners.

Having come so close with in 2012 with Camelot, who won the Guineas and the Derby before finishing a three-quarter-length second to Encke in the St Leger, winning all three Classics remains an itch O’Brien would love to scratch. No horse has won it since Nijinsky in 1970.

City Of Troy, by an American Triple Crown winner in Justify, looked imperious when winning the Dewhurst last season.

His main danger according to the bookmakers is the Richard Hannon-trained Rosallion, who was very impressive in claiming Group One glory in France last autumn. Hannon also runs the cosy Craven scorer Haatem.

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

There are plenty of other unbeaten colts with untapped potential and perhaps at the top of the list is Karl Burke’s Night Raider who has had just two outings on the all-weather, winning by nine lengths on the first occasion and five lengths at the second time of asking.

His jockey Danny Tudhope said: “He obviously wasn’t up against much in either of his races but he couldn’t have been more impressive.

“His work at home has been absolutely outstanding, and he’s really maturing into himself. I sat on him on Tuesday morning for a little breeze, and he felt a million dollars.

“He had a gallop on grass for the first time at the Craven meeting and I thought he handled the track unbelievably well.

“You might say there’s a question mark over him getting the mile, but from the way he’s finished his races, I’d say he’ll stay no problem.”

Ghostwriter won the Royal Lodge last year (Tim Goode/PA)

Charlie Appleby’s Notable Speech has followed a similar path to Night Raider with three wins at Kempton, while Clive Cox’s Ghostwriter is sure to be staying on stronger than most given the way he won the Royal Lodge at two.

Charlie Hills’ Iberian had Rosallion behind him when winning the Champagne Stakes and the Owen Burrows-trained Alyanaabi got closest to City Of Troy in the Dewhurst.

Kevin Ryan’s promising Inisherin, Ralph Beckett’s Task Force and Ed Walker’s Ten Bob Tony, the mount of Saffie Osborne, complete the list.

The only three not declared at the 48-hour stage were Diego Velazquez, Henry Longfellow and River Tiber, all trained by O’Brien.