We can believe what our eyes are telling us. That was the verdict from Timeform on Monday, with the ratings gurus placing City Of Troy a joint second in terms of winning performances posted in the Dewhurst this century.
The one horse rated higher than Aidan O'Brien's bright young star? You guessed it, the mighty Frankel, who those closest to City Of Troy drew parallels with after that stunning victory at Newmarket on Saturday.
“He really is our Frankel,” said Michael Tabor, one of the part-owners in City Of Troy after the Dewhurst demolition.
“I know the way Aidan speaks. We're all optimists, but this horse is special. No question, he's the real deal.”
He added, “That's what we feel at this moment. Maybe down the line we'll have egg on our face, but I like to talk before the event and I really feel this horse could be anything.”
High praise indeed. It seems as though Tabor was not alone in his summarisation of the performance with Timeform rating City Of Troy 125p.
That puts him alongside Pinatubo, Teofilo and New Approach for what they achieved in their respective Dewhurst victories. Meanwhile, Frankel achieved a rating of 126 for his Dewhurst triumph in 2010.
City Of Troy has raced just three times and remains unbeaten after pulling over three lengths clear of the 107-rated Alyanaabi in the Group 1 contest.
The bookmakers were suitably impressed and slashed City Of Troy into even-money favouritism for next year's 2,000 Guineas. Not only that, but he is now just 5-2 to win the Derby, while some firms are quoting odds of 10-1 for City Of Troy to do what no horse has done since Nijinsky in 1970 by winning the Triple Crown.
To provide further context to what the figures suggests City Of Troy achieved on Saturday, horses like Too Darn Hot, Shamardal [124 apiece], Rock Of Gibraltar, Air Force Blue [123 apiece], Sir Percy and Dawn Approach [122 apiece] were all rated behind him.
The best since Frankel is how many key industry figures labelled City Of Troy after Saturday. The ratings would suggest the same.
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