The best of times (for some) at Royal Ascot
It was the best of Royal Ascots, it was the worst of Royal Ascots – how often do we fall back on variations of Charles Dickens`s “It was the best of times it was the worst of times” when stumped for a description of momentous events?
But how then do you otherwise characterize this latest Royal meeting (the first was in 1911), with its arresting deeds, momentous results but leavened with a sluice of outsiders, form upsets that defied analysis? Consider the lost legions of Godolphin runners - at best disappointing, at worst catastrophic for Dubai`s multi-million-pound operation – twenty-seven runners, twenty-seven losers.
266,000 thousand in total attended the five days - King Charles III every day in his first Ascot since his recent accession to the throne. The late Queen Elizabeth II only had to wait a couple of weeks after her coronation for the first her of twenty-three Royal meeting winners; King Charles had to be patient for a little longer – he was crowned in May – but it came and even shunted Frankie Dettori in (avowedly) his last Royal Ascot, off the headlines and front pages. The tears and stiff upper lip of the monarch as Desert Hero, deserved winner of the King George V Heritage Handicap on the third day, were prompted by his royal winner bred by his late mother: you don`t see tearful monarchs very often in the winner`s enclosure: you`d never see Frankie Dettori there without the widest smile in racing.
Dettori though doesn`t just hog/steal/wallow in the limelight, his beam lights up the crowds. In common with the late Lester Piggott (stone-faced more often than not) the crowds have forgiven and forgotten any Dettori indiscretions. On the first day of five not only did he look like the frustrated Frankie of last year when age seemed to have caught up with him – “I might look young but when I fall I break like a vase” - his boss John Gosden declared a sabbatical - a polite word for ‘take a hike` - for his long time cohort after an abortive ride on three-time Gold Cup winner Stradivarius. This year on the first day Dettori received a nine-day ban for careless riding – on one of the King`s horses!
Redemption came in the Ascot Gold Cup, the pinnacle of the meeting. Courage Mon Ami had been ridden in all his three races by the Gosden stable`s Mr Reliable, Robert Havlin. But when Dettori`s intended mount Hasaky cried off, just as in Piggott`s day when lesser jockeys had to step aside to accommodate the great man, journeyman Havlin was jocked off and Dettori took over.
The partnership was by no means favourite but when Dettori is in what Gosden calls ‘the groove` the Italian transcends all boundaries by which lesser mortals are constrained. He brought Courage Mon Ami, a son of the all-conquering Frankel, with a run which the favourite Coltrane could not withstand. It may not have been the greatest of Gold Cups but Frankie Dettori will surely be given the freedom of Ascot -whenever he retires. Frankie is Hollywood and Bollywood rolled into one. The crowd were in raptures.
The hubris of Icarus, son of master craftsman Daedalus in Greek mythology, took his flight too close to the sun and his wings melted. Frankie Dettori, who has sometimes sailed ‘too close to the wind` (he has courted disaster wilfully) leapt higher and higher from the saddle as successive winners took him to new peaks of public adulation. Thank goodness he wasn`t tempted to leap from the Royal carriage he and his wife occupied, driven up the Ascot straight from a Windsor Castle reception with the King on the final day. (He was doing his lightest weight so didn`t share the sumptuous lunch).
The headlines without Dettori were made by Aidan O`Brien and his sons Joseph and Donnacha. Yes, it was the twelfth time the father had been champion trainer at Royal Ascot but as surely as King Charles succeeded his mother on the throne of England, the O`Brien siblings will one day be scrapping it out for the succession to their father. They are Irish ‘royalty`.
I started off by saying it was the worst of Ascot`s and that is ungenerous but the facts will resonate with many bankrupt punters. Winners at outrageous odds bombarded us: 150-1 (yes 150), 80-1, 50-1 plus a plethora of first places at prices between 20-1 and 33-1 at the world`s premier meeting where the cream is supposed to rise to the top. A succession of such odds does not suggest a healthy level of form, the only people constantly cheering being the bookmakers. Can we have confidence that the second half of the season is going to confirm the evidence and achievements of the first half? The best people round the world brought their best horses to Ascot and apart from one American went back as empty handed as Godolphin.
All that said there were eight favourites and they were important ones. Will the Queen`s Vase now become the King`s Vase? It was won by Dettori on Gregory, sold just before the race to Arab interest – a topic which is preoccupying the sporting world. The whole of global sport be it golf, soccer, Grand Prix Motor racing and ere long the Olympics, is in the Gulf`s financial grip and if this were to ‘relax` in Britain one would fear for the sport. Without Arab competition the Irish of Coolmore would have no competition.
There is no substitute for class and the Derby form was well and truly upheld when Epsom runner-up King of Steel, 66-1 that day, powered home as 11-10 favourite in the King Edward VII Stakes. He beat Continuous by three lengths: Continuous was twelve lengths further behind Ace Impact in the French Derby (Prix du Jockey Club) in Chantilly. Ace Impact was impressive but though you might have inferred from the name that he was a son of Deep Impact who rivalled Galileo as the world`s most influential sire (before Frankel), Ace Impact is by Cracksman, a son of Frankel.
Derby winner Auguste Rodin is by Deep Impact: Coolmore appear to hold all the aces bar Frankel. But apart from Ace Impact the French also have Blue Rose Cen smashing winner of the French Oaks (Prix de Diane). She is by another Galileo/Coolmore stallion, Churchill and no three-year-0ld has been more impressive than this filly. No wonder that mid-season expectations have European racing salivating over another great climax in the Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe in October. That`s one that Frankie Dettori, who has won the great race six times – more than anybody else – wouldn`t want to miss.
Before then we will have the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr1) in which Pyledriver will attempt to give racing`s ‘little men` a second successive victory. Five of Pyledriver`s eight wins have come at double figure odds but that is of no concern to his trainer William Muir who has barely enough horses in his yard to make a go of it. But Muir, ably assisted by Christy Grassick and, before his injury by son-in-law Martin Dwyer, has never lacked confidence in the horse. The year`s enforced absence since Pyledriver`s great day in the 2022 King George at Ascot when he beat former Arc winner Torquator Tasso, has been one of toil and trauma. Pyledriver had the crowds applauding as wholeheartedly as for a Dettori victory, as he won the Hardwicke (Gr2) Stakes with something to spare.
Money can`t buy me love sang the Beatles but Kiavash Joorabchian born in Iran, brought up in Canada, resident in Britain is as international as the host of footballer stars he controls – and has the cash to buy success. The $200,000 that he lashed out for King of Steel was by no means one of his most expensive purchases and he got Valiant Force winner of the Norfolk Stakes (Gr3) for half that sum. He`s taking on the Arabs with his Amo (which stands, mysteriously, for Amateur Motorcross Ontario) Racing. King of Steel was favourite; Valiant Force 150-1. Somebody got their sums wrong – either way Coolmore are laughing since King of Steel is by Wootton Bassett whom they are promoting as the next Galileo. And if that fails? Well there`s always the Derby winner Auguste Rodin to come. Time and again Coolmore and Aidan O`Brien prove class is permanent.
Money can buy success: Age of Kings cost Coolmore £1.1m and yet Ryan Moore chose the stable`s better-fancied The Antarctic in the Jersey Stakes (Gr3). Moore was leading jockey at the meeting for the tenth time. The most consummate all-round jockey of his era Moore hasn`t won the title since 2009 but riding the best horses, as he does for Coolmore, is his only consideration. Age of Kings won at the most unlikely Coolmore odds of 22-1. So too did Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Gr1 sprint winner Khaadem. He originally cost 750,000gns. He`s changed hands (undisclosed) since and this victory was the gelding`s first at the highest level at the eighth attempt.
Some commentators still think it necessary to refer to Hollie Doyle`s extending list of prime victories as those of a ‘female jockey` rather than simply the finished rider she is. And so it was when she became the first woman to ride a Group One at the Royal meeting – Bradsell in the King`s Stand sprint. Bradsell hadn`t won since his Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot 2022 and represented another great training performance by the rapidly rising Archie Watson. Doyle later added two more Royal meeting victories. She`s not just a jockey, she`s a top jockey.
Unfathomable Royal Ascot. The first winner on the first day set the tone at 33-1 but that son of Frankel, Triple Time, had only been beaten once in his five races prior to the Queen Anne Stakes (Gr1). Maybe the punters had taken their eye off the ball and were diverted by the blinding light of Frankie Dettori because Triple Time forced an uncharacteristic defeat on Inspiral with whom Dettori had won last year`s Coronation Stakes.
Another Group One and another Frankel, this time the five-year-old Mostahdaf, his first at the highest level, in the Prince of Wales`s (Gr1) Stakes beating such as former Derby winner Adayar and a distinguished field. Earlier Two Thousand Guineas winner Chaldean ran into Coolmore`s Irish Two Thousand winner Paddington in the St James`s Palace Stakes (Gr1) and in the fillies` equivalent, the Coronation Stakes (Gr1) Godolphin were frustrated by the late withdrawal of their English One Thousand Guineas heroine Mawj. She had overcome Irish One Thousand Guineas winner Tahiyra at Newmarket. Tahiyra was left to comfortably justify favouritism in the Coronation.
Lester Piggott finally retired at 59, seven years older than Dettori will be when his scheduled departure arrives at the end of 2023. But stale statistics will never be the measure of either man both enrolled into that tiny band of sportsmen immortalized by their first names; Lester, Frankie. At 58 Piggott rode the last of his 116 Royal meeting winners in 1993; Dettori had ridden his first three years before. But remember in Lester`s time Royal Ascot was only a four-day meeting. Dettori has amassed eighty-one victories and is justifiably proud of the number. We`re talking of different ages and the British public however sceptical they are about the way the country is run and apprehension as to where it might be heading, annually give their all at Royal Ascot – Dettori and Piggott returned the compliment in spades.
It wasn`t in Lester Piggott`s make up to announce a pop stars ‘world farewell tour` such as Dettori was bound to undertake and has already commenced. All the while racing endures. Royal Ascot 2024 is already in the crowd`s diaries despite it being, most likely, the first this century missing the name of Frankie Dettori.
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