City of Troy gets to strut his stuff in Dewhurst

City of Troy makes his eagerly anticipated third start and Group 1 debut Saturday at Newmarket in the Dewhurst Stakes.

It was at Newmarket on July 23 that City of Troy revealed his star potential winning the Group 2 Superlative Stakes over seven furlongs by 6 ½ lengths. Always prominent under Ryan Moore, City of Troy began asserting his superiority about 300 yards from home, getting ever farther ahead going down into “The Dip” in the Newmarket straight course and up the hill to the finish.

That flashy victory followed an easy debut win at The Curragh and made City of Troy a strong early favorite for Classic races next year. City of Troy was entered in the Group 1 National Stakes on Sept. 10 at The Curragh but trainer Aidan O’Brien took the colt out of the race, saying he wanted to give City of Troy more time between starts. O'Brein won the National anyway, with Henry Longfellow, and now it's City of Troy's turn to show what he's got. The colt is by Justify out of Together Forever, by Galileo, and was about 1-2 with English bookmakers Thursday to win the seven-furlong Dewhurst.

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Iberian was the clear second choice for the Dewhurst in great part on the strength of a two-length win Sept. 16 in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes over seven furlongs at Doncaster. Third in that seven-furlong contest was Rosallion, who came back to win the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere on the Arc de Triomphe undercard.

Ace Impact retired

To the surprise of roughly nobody, Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Ace Impact’s retirement was announced Thursday. Connections said following the Arc on Oct. 1 that they’d give some time and consideration determining whether to race Ace Impact next year at age 4 and send him off to stallion duties, but his principal owners operate the Haras de Beaumont Stud, where Ace Impact will take up stallion duties this winter.

Ace Impact capped a perfect six-start season in the Arc, adding that to his win this past summer in the Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby. Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, Ace Impact didn’t make his career debut until this winter, when he won a maiden race over the all-weather track at Cagnes-Sur-Mer. His 3 1/2-length win in the French Derby marked his group stakes debut, and until the Arc, the colt never had raced as far as 1 1/2 miles nor started at Longchamp. Nonetheless, under regular rider Mirco Demuro, Ace Impact cannonballed home and beat Westover by 1 3/4 lengths in what would be his career finale.

Ace Impact is by Cracksman out of Absolutly Me, by Anabaa Blue – and it would have been nice to see more of his brilliant races in 2024.

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