Dettori magic
Robin Oakley
Grrhe one thing I'm not doing,' I told a friend at Ascot on Saturday, 'is backing Frankie Dettori's mounts. You never get a fair price on anything he rides at Ascot.' How right I was, The guide prices in the racecard for Frankie's six partners were 14-1, 8-1, 12-1, 7-2, 6-1 and 7-2. They started at 5-1, 6-1, 11-2, 7-2, 3-1, and 9-2. Right I might have been, but I was also a complete idiot, because four of them won, giving Britain's most talkative jockey a 692-1 accumulator. Not only is Frankie Dettori riding as well as he has ever done this season, Dettori at Ascot is a special force, Simply arriving at the course where he once rode seven winners in seven races seems to charge up his batteries, and with the course being rebuilt he wants to cart away the current winning post and erect it in his garden. On Saturday he was pretty nearly irresistible, giving us a master-class in the saddle.
Riding Pivotal Point for Peter Makin in the first, a five-furlong sprint, Dettori set off in front, imparting all his own confidence to his mount and maintaining his lead to the line. Before the second, Dettori was warned by trainer Peter Harris that his mount Shot To Fame had been narrowly beaten last time out after getting in a head-to-head battle with Mark Johnston's tough customer Gateman, who opposed him again. So this time Dettori kept his mount handy but did not wind him up fully and make his effort until the final furlong, going ahead in the closing stages and hanging on by a head. 'He dug deep because the other fella was coming back at him,' said Dettori. Asked if he was having a real go for the jockeys' championship this year, he declared, 'I'm just taking one race at a time and enjoying my riding.' He was enjoying the crowd, too, marshalling the photographers and the syndicate owners of Shot To Fame. 'Why are we called the Conquistadors? Damned if I can remember,' said one of them.
Pagan Dance in the third never offered his rider much assistance and stayed out at the back. In the fourth, Dettori followers were shouting him home a furlong out on the 11-4 favourite Berkhamsted as he took the lead, but he was clearly outgunned by Cape Greko. In the next race came another superb piece of Dettori timing as he squeezed through a gap a furlong out on Michael Bell's Sacred Nuts, chased after the leader, Mark Johnston's Fiefdom, and caught him in the last 30 yards. The delighted trainer was explaining afterwards that the horse earned his name as he is by Sri Pekan (pecan nuts, get it?) out of Sagrada. Apparently connections had at one stage wanted to call him Goldenballs, which would have encouraged a few of us who once worked for the late Sir James Goldsmith's Now? magazine to have a sentimental bet. But nowadays, it seems, the Goldenballs title has been passed on to one D. Beckham, who plays football, and the name was ruled out of order by the Jockey Club, who wouldn't play ball.
The final example of Dettori artistry was provided in the final race when, riding for Godolphin on Dubois, who had not looked too keen on a scrap last time out, he took the horse over to the trees down the far side in search of better ground, moved back to the rails having poached a six-furlong lead, and nursed his mount home in the straight with the margin undiminished, never seeing another horse. I am not sure of the Italian for daylight robbery but no Roman con man could have achieved a smoother result.
For Frankie there were just two small blips in a perfect day. The stewards gave him a one-day suspension for hitting Berkhamsted in the wrong place. No, not that place. And when he leapt off Sacred Nuts in one of his crowd-pleasing flying dismounts, he overbalanced and landed flat on his posterior. When I told him that I had never before seen him fail to make a perfect landing, an unfazed Dettori explained, scrambling to his feet, that one of the owners had moved and he hadn't wanted to land on his head. I think that after an Ascot winner most of us would be willing to forgive aerial bombardment by the small Anglo-Italian who had contrived the victory.
Frankie is now lying third in the jockeys championship this season behind Kieren Fallon and Darryll Holland. It will be hard for him to beat them because, after the light-aeroplane accident four years ago which nearly killed him, he will not fly to evening meetings, but if injuries or suspensions become a factor he has a chance. His friend and agent Ray Cochrane, who gave up riding soon after being involved in that same crash, is booking Frankie for many more outside rides these days and he insists that all the old fervour is back. Dettori, he says, is very positive on horses. 'He gets in a good position and assesses a situation very quickly. He makes the big decisions fast — two strides and he's got the race under control.'
Dettori's feats apart, my Ascot notes record that Michael Bell has a tough little horse in Sacred Nuts and that the second, Mark Johnston's Fiefdom, was giving him six pounds and was beaten by only a neck. He should go further. So should Andrew Balding's Cape Greko, whom he said ran very green on his first outing and who looked to have won his race with something in hand. He will, says Andrew, be a lovely horse next year.
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