City Of Troy's sire could be the next Sadler’s Wells and Galileo - and no-one will be more aware of that than Aidan O’Brien

Ten Derby victories and counting says everything about the achievements of a man who had his doubters when he was installed at Ballydoyle back in 1995. Then a fresh-faced 26-year-old who had trained a string of jumpers, Aidan O’Brien is now rewriting the records he wrote himself over the last three decades.

However, City Of Troy’s Derby triumph on Saturday cast O’Brien in a new light. Never before has a trainer become so intimately entwined with the breeding industry. Sir Noel Murless bred numerous good horses, among them the 1968 1,000 Guineas winner Caergwrle, but O’Brien is on a different level.

The O’Brien family breeds horses under the Whisperview Trading banner. The successful enterprise extends to more than 100 mares and has a commercial slant. In that respect, it has aligned O’Brien closer and closer to the mindset of his paymasters at Coolmore. He is more accurately portrayed these days as a trainer-breeder, with the latter part of that label increasingly preoccupying him.