It was a memorable Derby for sure, with him sweeping past the field the way he did – I vividly remember watching it live on TV (in the glorious days it was on a Wednesday…sigh).
BUT, thrilling as the style of the win was, I wouldn’t have him down as an all-time great. Very, very good, but not an ‘all-time great’ – I’d reserve that category for horses such as Nijinsky, Dancing Brave, Frankel and a few others. I don’t think Troy quite reached those heights. You can’t have too many ‘all-time greats’.
From Wikipedia – In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Troy a “great” Derby winner and the sixteenth best British racehorse of the 20th Century
And they would be better judges than me!
He died at 7 years old and didn’t really get a chance to prove himself at stud but in that short time he proved himself a highly promising broodmare sire and was the damsire of horses such as Oath, Pilsudski, Street Cry and Westerner.
Cormack15