Notable Speech wins 2000 Guineas as City of Troy fails to fire

Notable Speech was a surprise winner as City Of Troy failed to land a blow in the Qipco 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket.

Aidan O'Brien’s colt was sent off the 4-6 favourite after an unbeaten juvenile campaign which culminated in an impressive success in the Dewhurst Stakes.

However, he looked under pressure early on in the hands of Ryan Moore and faded out of the race entirely, leaving 16-1 chance Notable Speech to take up the lead.

Under William Buick, the Charlie Appleby-trained chestnut pulled away in the final furlong to win comfortably by a length and a half.

The Richard Hannon-trained duo of Rosallion and Haatem took minor honours, with a length and three-quarters between them at the line. City of Troy was five lengths back in ninth.

Notable Speech did not run as a juvenile and had only raced on the all-weather prior to his Classic success, winning each of his three outings at Kempton.

"You don’t see too many come off an all-weather success to a Guineas success, we’ve given him all the time, thinking he was a good horse," Appleby said.

"He was given that time, a few lads sat on him last year in August time, when you start to see these horses developing more, and they were just saying 'he’s a nice horse’.

"He was still far too weak to do anything with, as always I’m in the very privileged position to be allowed to give the horses the time that they need, with no pressure.

"He came out on the all-weather there and we all know what he did – he was three from three – in that last start, I think he put a bit of a ‘wow factor’ into what he achieved, with his acceleration.

"William did say ‘I think he’s a French Guineas’ horse because he’s quick, and so therefore we toyed with whether to go there. We were waiting for the Craven to