It was a must-see moment for thousands of racing fans – including Victoria Starmer, the wife of the new prime minister – as City Of Troy raced in all-aged company for the first time in the Eclipse Stakes, and they saw a different side of the Derby winner, as he was forced to dig deep on rain-softened ground to beat the four-year-old Al Riffa by a length at odds of 1-4.
Aidan O’Brien, City Of Troy’s trainer, suggested afterwards that it had been touch and go whether we would see the winner at all.
