The gloomy noises off in horse racing over the latest incipient crisis to appear on the horizon can become a little overwhelming at times, but every now and again, a race or a week comes along to remind us all why we caught the bug in the first place.
A dozen runners, including City Of Troy, this year’s Derby winner, have been declared for the International Stakes on the first afternoon of York’s Ebor meeting on Wednesday, when the track’s richest race of the year will have a double-figure field for only the second time this century, and on paper at least, it has pretty much everything that even the most demanding racegoer or punter could wish to see in a middle-distance top-tier Group One race.
The obvious storyline surrounds City Of Troy, who has been saddled with a “best-since-Frankel” billing pretty much since his first start as a juvenile but is still looking for the career-defining performance in an all-aged field that he needs to fully live up to it.
The track, the trip and the going all look ideal for Aidan O’Brien’s colt, whose sole defeat in six starts came in the 2,000 Guineas in May, but there are enough lingering doubts after a tough race in the Eclipse in July to see him priced up at even-money in the early betting for Wednesday’s race. From a punter’s point of view, it is a near-perfect scenario that will give his many fans a chance to double their money if he wins, while offering the doubters an attractive list of each-way alternatives, including proven Group One performers and up-and-coming improvers.
For racing followers of a certain age, meanwhile, this may feel like something of a throwback renewal of a contest that has been etching lasting memories into the sport’s collective consciousness ever since the first running in 1972, when the great Brigadier Gerard suffered the only defeat of his 18-race career at the hands of that year’s Derby winner, Roberto.
Small fields and odds-on favourites have become something of a pattern in this race in recent years, and the “international” tag has seemed a little overblown too. This year’s renewal, however, has runners from four countries – England, Ireland, France and Japan – and while City Of York is undoubtedly the star name in the field, it is the presence of his fellow three-year-old Calandagan, the King Edward VII Stakes winner, that arguably turns it into a truly compelling race.
The steady decline in the number of French-trained runners and winners in British Group One events has been a distinct and somewhat surprising feature of the last decade. Five of our 36 Group Ones were won by French-trained horses in 2015, but the totals for the eight full seasons since are 2-0-0-2-1-1-1-1, an average of one per year.
Three of France’s four Group One wins between 2020 and 2023, meanwhile, were on Champions Day at Ascot in October, when an easy surface played to the strengths of horses including Big Rock and Sealiway. But Goliath got them on the board for 2024 with a thoroughly dominant display in the King George at Ascot last month, and his trainer, Francis Graffard, will arrive at York with high hopes of recording a second British Group One win in less than a month when Calandagan goes to post on Wednesday.
It is not just the fact that Calandagan hints at a potential renaissance for French-trained runners at the top level in Britain that adds so much to Wednesday’s race.
He also runs in the famous green and red colours of the Aga Khan, which have been part of the fabric of the turf for decades, and where City Of Troy’s connections are concerned, he could be seen as something of a nightmare opponent. Graffard’s runner is a gelding, and as a result, he was ineligible for this season’s Classics, but while a win for City Of Troy could see him feted as one of the greats of recent years on Wednesday, a convincing defeat at the hands of Calandagan might suggest that he is not even the best of his own generation.
Aidan O’Brien, City Of Troy’s trainer, is running away with the trainer’s title on the Flat this season and some might see it as just the latest affront to British racing’s dignity if Graffard could take another Group One back to Chantilly.
But Calandagan’s presence will add immensely to the fascination and narrative of Wednesday’s race, and if he – or Jerome Reynier’s Zarakem – could maintain the French momentum in our high-summer highlights, it would only be a positive sign for the sport as a whole.
