City Of Troy tops 11 Coral-Eclipse entries at Sandown Park

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Mon July 01, 2024 · 9M ago

Betfred Derby hero City Of Troy heads 11 possible contenders for Saturday's Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park.

Trained by Aidan O'Brien for the Coomore trio of Magnier, Tabor and Smith, the Justify colt bounced back from 2000 Guineas disappointment to win the Epsom Classic in tremendous fashion, reminding everyone of the brilliance he had displayed during an unbeaten, three-race juvenile campaign last season.

He's now set to tackle a mile and a quarter for the first time in the famous Group One contest and could be joined in the line-up by older stablemates Luxembourg, Hans Andersen and Continuous.

The much-improved White Birch, who brought up a 2024 hat-trick with victory over subsequent Prince of Wales's Stakes winner Auguste Rodin in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the end of May, has been left in the race by trainer John Murphy, while Hughie Morrisin's Stay Alert and the Joseph O'Brien-trained Al Riffa are the other older horses still in the mix at the five-day stage.

Perhaps the main dangers to Sky Bet's 4/9 favourite City Of Troy will be posed by fellow three-year-olds Dancing Gemini (Roger Teal) and Ghostwriter (Clive Cox), with the latter expected to be more effective back on a sound surface after finishing fourth on heavy going in last month's Qatar Prix du Jockey Club.

The Brian Meehan-trained Jayarebe and Andrew Balding's filly See The Fire are two others representing the Classic generation in the British Champions Series event due off at 3.35 on Saturday afternoon.

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