Dettori winner not what the doctor ordered for Fallon
And he got off to a winning start on Toldo in the Trevor Woods Memorial Nursery.
The champion-elect rode the George Moore-trained grey with his customary dash to beat Lord Of Dreams by two lengths and go 19 clear of Fallon.
The 9-1 winner was having his first start for Moore, having been claimed out of Alan Berry’s yard after winning at Newcastle in August.
“His owner, John Armstrong, claimed him and sent him to me,” the Middleham trainer said. “He gallops well at home and Frankie said he’ll get further than this mile.
“He’s entered at Doncaster on Friday but that’s only over seven furlongs and this trip suits him.”
Meanwhile, champion jockey Kieren Fallon will be out of action until tomorrow.
The rider’s agent Dave Pollington reports Fallon to be suffering from a flu-like illness and after a busy weekend which saw him ride at three meetings on Saturday, Fallon has decided to take time out to recover.
“He’s not well so he’s just taking a couple of days off but he will be back on Wednesday at Nottingham,” said Pollington.
“He’s just got some flu-like symptoms so he thought it wise to take a bit of time off as he’s had a pretty heavy schedule lately. He will be OK.”
Meanwhile, Eddie Ahern was in sparkling form at Wolverhampton with a 52-1 treble.
He opened his account on Lateral Thinker (9-4) for Jamie Osborne in the seller, followed up on the Peter Harris-trained Albavilla (5-1) in the 14-furlong handicap and completed his trio on Ed Dunlop’s Gentleman’s Deal (7-4) in a handicap over nine and a half furlongs.
Ahern is now on the 87-winner mark for the year.
Godolphin will be without the services of Kerrin McEvoy this week after the young jockey rushed back to his native Australia to be at the bedside of his stricken grandfather, Bill Holland.
Holland, 74, suffered a broken neck and other injuries when he was thrown from a two-year-old filly near his home at Streaky Bay in South Australia on Saturday morning.
He landed on his head and was air-lifted to Royal Adelaide Hospital where he is in intensive care.
Phillip McEvoy, Kerrin’s father and Holland’s son-in-law, said the veteran trainer was on a life support machine.
“It’s an absolute tragedy something like this could happen to somebody like Bill,” said McEvoy senior.
“He was still so active for somebody of his age. He had just come back from shearing 160 sheep a day and was about to reapply for his trainer’s licence because he had a couple of horses waiting to put into work.”
Holland, who taught McEvoy to ride, was educating the filly for neighbour Robyn Guidera, who saw him fall from the horse and gave him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the spot until further help arrived.
McEvoy senior said he had spoken to his 23-year-old son. “Kerrin is pretty upset but rode at Newmarket on Saturday before jumping on a plane to get home as quickly as possible,” he added.
McEvoy junior, who won the Melbourne Cup on Brew in 2000, has made a big impression in his first season as Godolphin’s number two to Frankie Dettori.
His 44 winners this year have included his first British Classic, the St Leger on Rule Of Law.
