Dettori fires in treble
Frankie Dettori took a giant step towards clinching the jockeys’ title with a treble at Leicester today as Kieren Fallon ended the afternoon in hospital.
The Italian, champion in 1994 and 1995, pulled 13 clear of his main rival with a 36-1 three-timer on Yashin, Sunday Symphony and Saywaan.
Dettori now leads the six-times title-holder 181 to 168.
The leader wrapped up his treble with success aboard 7-4 favourite Saywaan for Godolphin in the second division of the EBF Hare Maiden Fillies’ Stakes.
It was in this race that Fallon, who had failed to add to his total, was injured following a fall from Maritima in scrimmaging over a furlong out.
Dettori got off the mark with a clear-cut success in the 10-furlong Stoat Selling Stakes as Yashin (11-2) ran out a ridiculously easy winner by eight lengths from Fallon on Smart Boy Prince.
Mark Tompkins’ charge was bought at the post-race auction for 12,000 guineas by Nigel Shields.
“I have been riding him over seven furlongs and begging Mr Tompkins to step him up in trip and he must have listened to me,” said Dettori.
Next came Sunday Symphony, who got on top late on to beat the rallying Bayeux de Moi in the Racecourse Video Services Conditions Stakes.
The 11-10 favourite took plenty of time to get going under Dettori but despite hanging left, stayed on to snatch the spoils by half a length.
“He hasn’t been the fastest of learners – put it that way – but he probably won with a bit in hand in the end and this wasn’t a bad little race,” said Godolphin spokesman Sam Avis.
“He is going the right way and hopefully getting the hang of things.”
Away from the literal ups and downs of the jockeys’ race, the £20,000 toteplacepot Handicap – the most valuable race of the day and a most competitive affair – fell to 28-1 chance Massif Centrale, who signed off from a good season’s work with success under John Egan.
Completing an across-the-card treble for trainer David Elsworth, who enjoyed two winners at Windsor, Massif Centrale overturned recent Newmarket placings with favourite Carte Diamond as he stayed on strongly to beat Zeitgeist by a length and a quarter.
“He has done enough to earn a nice holiday now,” said Julia Tooth, daughter of the colt’s successful owner Raymond Tooth.
“He’s definitely not going hurdling.”
Amanda Perrett’s team are enjoying a successful end-of-season spell after a quiet time in midsummer and Corcoran made a winning bow in the first division of the EBF Hare Maiden Fillies’ Stakes.
The 16-1 chance was always prominent on the stands rail under Richard Hughes but showed a good attitude to take control well over a furlong out and first hold the challenge of Tajaathub and then the fast finishes of Kahira and Tempestad.
Perrett’s husband Mark was delighted to pick up another winner and said: “She is a grand filly, a proper stamp of a horse like her full-brother Corsican Native.
“That was very pleasing and we have got a few nice two-year-olds still to run this season.”
Simon Whitworth breathed a sigh of relief as he ended a three-month losing run in the opening contest.
The jockey had gone 136 rides since his last winner coming into the Shelduck Fillies’ Handicap but he ended his unwanted sequence when 25-1 chance Indian Maiden got up in the shadow of the winning post to collar gambled-on Emerald Fire by a head.
Entering the final two furlongs it appeared that the small group on the far side of the track, headed by Karminskey Park, might be on top as the runners fanned out across the course.
But the main body, headed by Emerald Fire, were clearly in front at the furlong pole and Indian Maiden put her head in front where it mattered most.
A change of tactics saw the hitherto-frustrating Star Pupil break his duck in the Dormouse Maiden Stakes.
Allowed to bowl along under Martin Dwyer in the early stages, the Andrew Balding-trained gelding was well clear by the halfway stage of the seven-furlong contest.
Having drifted across to the far side of the track, Star Pupil then began to hang back across to the stands rail in the closing stages and swished his tail as his stamina reserves began to give out.
But the 5-2 chance had done enough to hold the late push of the 14-1 chance Barons Spy by a length and a half.
