“There is no doubt he is the best-two-year old I’ve trained” and “as exciting a two-year-old as I have ever ridden” were some of the superlatives spoken after City Of Troy (8/15 favourite) made all for a stunning victory in the Group 1 Native Trail’s Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday.

The son of Justify was making his first start since his breathtaking success in the Group 2 bet365 Superlative Stakes at the July Festival. Sent straight to the front by Ryan Moore, City Of Troy was asked to extend entering the final two furlongs and the response was awesome as he lengthened in tremendous style to go on and record a three and a half lengths success. Alyanaabi (6/1) stayed on to take second with another length back to Eben Shaddad (25/1) in third.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien, winning the Dewhurst Stakes for a record-equalling eighth time said: “He would have absolutely hated that ground and the stride on him is incredible, but he just never gets tired. We had nowhere else to run him and thank goodness we ran him.

“I wasn’t (tense) as I said to everyone he could get beat. He was entitled to get beat, but he just never gets tired. I’ve never seen a horse that doesn’t get tired. He goes again going to the line again. It is obviously part of his make-up.

"That would be his worst type of ground as Ryan said it was deep, sticky ground. You saw him going to the start, he hardly rose his legs and he hardly lifted his feet.

"We’ve never had anything like him. I’ve never had a horse that never gets tired. That is just the way it is. I’ve never had a horse where we don’t know where the limit is. We usually push them to the limit, but we can never find his limit. He has done it the hard way as well, but he would be delighted to get a lead. He goes along with his ears pricked just lobbing along.

“Everything we’ve asked him to do he finds it very easy and we’ve never got to the bottom of him which is very unusual. Ryan rode him with extreme confidence. He said after the first race that is definitely not his ground as he is a beautiful mover. You need tractor tyres to go on that today, and he hasn’t got tractor tyres, but what he has is a jet engine and that jet engine just pushes his action through it.

“He is an incredible horse really. There is no doubt he is the best two-year-old I’ve trained. He is by Justify and it is a Justify trait in that they just keep going. His dad did it over in Belmont and he looked like a big sprinter, so it is obviously coming from Justify, and he is out of a great Galileo mare as well. I’m so delighted for the lads really. I’d imagine that is what they will do (go Guineas then Derby). He is something to really look forward to.”

O’Brien previously won the Dewhurst Stakes with Rock Of Gibraltar (2001), Beethoven (2009), War Command (2013), Air Force Blue (2015), Churchill (2017), U S Navy Flag (2017) and St Mark’s Basilica (2020).

Lovely action

Ryan Moore told ITV Racing: “He’s got such a lovely action. These wouldn’t be his ideal conditions today.

“Aidan has got belief in this horse and the way he performed on the July Course, I couldn’t really see anything else in the race that could do that and he would have too much ability for them.

“He had been off since July and I think he had forgotten a little bit. He was very, very good in the last furlong and a half today and he is a very, very good colt.

“When I rode him on the July Course and the first day at the Curragh – at the Curragh he did something no horse has ever done to me before (nearly running off the course as he couldn’t be pulled up) and on the July Course I thought no horse has ever been this good at that point of their career.

“He was good today off the back of a long layoff on ground he wouldn’t have liked. There is a massive engine there and he is as exciting a two-year-old as I have ever ridden.”

Moore is the most successful current jockey in the Dewhurst Stakes with five victories. He was previously successful aboard Beethoven (2009), Air Force Blue (2015), Churchill (2016) and U S Navy Flag (2017).

Solid run

Trainer Owen Burrows said of the runner-up Alyanaabi: “Jim (Crowley) said he wasn’t in love with the ground, but I don’t think Aidan’s horse was either. I’m very pleased and it was a good solid run. We said it was perhaps the ground at Ascot, but it might have been that he went a bit weak on us and he wasn’t quite himself that day.

“There is only one Dewhurst so you have to have a go at it. He has not let us down and he has run a great race. It is a long time until the 2000 Guineas and hopefully it will be faster ground, but it looks like Aidan’s horse will be better on faster ground.

“However, you can’t run away from one horse. It hasn’t dented my faith in him as he still remains a good horse as up there as one of the best two-year-olds in this country. We can’t be too disappointed.”