With trainer Aidan O’Brien being inducted into the British Racing Hall of Fame earlier in the afternoon the script appeared to be written for his unbeaten three-year-old City Of Troy as he lined up as odds-on favourite for the 2024 renewal of Newmarket’s 2,000 Guineas, the first classic of the season.
But racing has a habit of delivering unexpected plot twists and City Of Troy, having been prominent early in the race, failed to sparkle on his first run of the season.
With the favourite out of the way it appeared an open contest two furlongs out with a wall of six horses challenging. Going best were Rosallion and Notable Speech and it was this pair who asserted as push came to shove. Approaching the final furlong Notable Speech gained the upper hand and was pushed to the line by jockey William Buick to record a one and a half-length success from Rosallion who kept on for second.
It was a first victory in the race for Buick and a second for trainer Charlie Appleby, who’d won with Coroebus in 2022. The winner, a Godolphin home-bred son of superstar sire Dubawi was maintaining an unbeaten record, his previous three wins all having come on Kempton’s artificial surface.
Unraced at two he’d progressed race by race but the Guineas was by far his stiffest test to date. It was a test he passed with flying colours.
Buick was fulsome in his praise for the winner. “I’ve not very often believed in a horse as much as this guy. I’ve had that much belief in him and sometimes you go home at night and think ‘have I lost the plot all together?’ because that’s how he does things, he does it so easily and his change of gear is incredible.”
Trainer Appleby also emphasised how upbeat the team were about his chance. “What he did on his last start really made us think there’s a racehorse here for sure, it had a real ‘wow factor’. From that point to when we galloped him here, everything we were learning about him gave us confidence. Paul Eddery sat on him the other day and he got off him and said the favourite would have to be very good to beat him, and he’s sat on a lot of good horses.”
Plans are fluid for Notable Speech, whose pedigree would suggest stamina limitations, is not in the Derby, but a run in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot will surely be very much in their minds.
Aidan O’Brien was puzzled by the blow-out of the hot favourite City Of Troy. “He git upset in the stalls, which is not like him” O’Brien said but could not further explain the poor showing of the Ryan Moore ridden market leader.
