Grandera gives Dettori victory in Singapore

Grandera gave Frankie Dettori a memorable end to what had been a turbulent week when landing a dramatic Singapore Airlines International Cup on a hot night at Kranji.

The victory of Kazzia in the Sagitta 1000 Guineas on Sunday was tempered by a ban picked up at Doncaster and winners missed when he was laid off for two days with flu.

But after putting the successful Godolphin team on top of the World Series Racing Championship in every category after three races the jubilant Italian said: ‘‘Isn’t life wonderful, well done me.’’

And life could get even better for Dettori, who dashed off straight after the race to catch a plane to Paris in search of more Group One glory.

Today he partners Firebreak in the French 2000 Guineas and Firth Of Lorne in the French 1000 at Longchamp.

Everything went right for Dettori, who gave Grandera a brilliant ride to take the first prize of more than €1m.

As expected Western Pride set a decent gallop with Godolphin’s second string Atlantis Prince hard on his heels and Dettori recovered from a slow start to be perfectly poised in midfield on the 8-5 favourite.

But there were others with chances as the race began to unfold on the final turn and second favourite Universal Prince was trying to make his bid between the two leaders when he took a crashing fall.

Thankfully, horse and rider Justin Sheehan escaped virtually unscathed but with the Australian horse out of the race, it was left to two European raiders to fight out the finish.

But no sooner had German runner Paolini made his bid for glory than Grandera swept past him in the final furlong to win by two lengths.

Hong Kong’s nine-year-old Indigenous, trained by Ivan Allan, was two and a half lengths further back in third.

His stablemate Olympic Express, who had been Grandera’s stablemate under the name of Ecclesiastical when the two were trained at Newmarket by James Fanshawe, was fourth.

Grandera had been a shade disappointing in two starts since he joined Godolphin last October, and his return to form could not have been more timely.

‘‘I’m glad he has recaptured his form. It took a bit of time to get to know him but we’re here now,’’ said Dettori.

‘‘He was a very consistent horse in Europe last year and the race was set up for him.’’

Godolphin’s racing manager Simon Crisford was understandably delighted that their faith in Grandera had been justified.

He said: ‘‘A lot of people were questioning his attitude but he is very resolute and genuine. It’s just that if you see him work he hits the front and thinks he’s done enough.

‘‘To win a race like this takes some doing. It’s not easy to come to places like here and Hong Kong. They are very hard races to win and you’ve got to have the right horse. We acquired him as we thought he was the type to do well on the international scene.

‘‘The Arlington Million is a race we will look at but we won’t over-race him. He’s the type of horse we will keep for next year as well.

‘‘He’ll have three or four runs this year, possibly one in England at the backend and he’ll return to Dubai for the winter.’’

Crisford praised the role that Atlantis Prince, ridden by Yutaka Take, played as Grandera had not lived up to the high expectations when fifth to Eishin Preston in the QEII Cup at Sha Tin last time.

‘‘Atlantis Prince helped drag the race through decent fractions. In Hong Kong he had the visors on, he was too keen, saw too much daylight and was too buzzy,’’ he added.

Only 13 went to post for the mile-and-a-quarter contest following the defection of French-trained mare Terre A Terre because of a poor blood count.