Last Sunday Aidan O’Brien trained his 16th Irish Derby winner. He’s won the Epsom Derby 10 times and countless other big races over the world in his training career which started in 1993.

His best horses? Some would say Galileo but he really only achieved true greatness at stud. As a racehorse, Galileo had a Timeform rating of 134, which is 11lb behind Frankel and 6lb behind Sea The Stars.

O’Brien has had Yeats, Giant’s Causeway, Hawk Wink (rated 136) and many other brilliant performers but perhaps his latest star City Of Troy is going to eclipse them all – pardon the pun.

Next Saturday, all eyes will be on City Of Troy in the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown.

Deeply impressive when he won the Derby at Epsom on 1 June, City Of Troy bypassed the Irish Derby last weekend and the winner of that race, Los Angeles, was a well-beaten third at Epsom.

Last season, City Of Troy was unbeaten and European champion juvenile. His trademark was that he didn’t stop running after the finishing post – he keeps galloping strongly.

At the start of this year, there was talk of a Triple Crown bid – the Guineas, Derby and St Leger – a feat not achieved since 1970 and rarely tried due to commercial concerns.

Then it all went wrong in the 2000 Guineas when, incredulously, the hot favourite was beaten at halfway.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien blamed himself. The horse was too fresh and had simply raced too hard in the early stages.

Connections kept the faith and so did punters, sending City Of Troy off favourite for the Derby a month later, which he won in great style.

Afterwards, O’Brien described the horse as “the best Derby winner we’ve had” and he’s had 10 of them.

So it all points to City Of Troy being an extraordinary racehorse.

On Saturday he steps down in trip to 10 furlongs, which shouldn’t be a problem. He also faces older horses for the first time. But, at time of writing, the opposition looks weak and City Of Troy will be expected to bolt in.

The only question will be how far will he win by? And could he put up a performance which will merit an official rating to put him up there with the likes of Frankel?

Speaking at the Curragh last Sunday, Coolmore boss John Magnier said: “Watch this space, we will let the horse do the talking now.”

And what comes after Sandown? Probably the International at York in August, the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September, maybe the Arc in Paris in October and possibly a race at the Breeders’ Cup in California in November.

Strap yourselves in. It promises to be an intriguing campaign.