Dettori pounces for Oaks triumph

FRANKIE DETTORI had no doubts about Enable’s stamina and the John Gosden-trained 6-1 shot emphatically proved him right with a five-length win in the Investec Oaks. In a Classic preceded by great drama and run in a torrential storm as forked lightning hit Epsom Downs, Enable briefly tangled with 8-11 favourite Rhododendron before leaving her trailing with Alluringly a further six lengths back in third. It was a fourth Oaks for Dettori and a first since Kazzia 15 years ago. For Gosden, who also saddled fifth Coronet, it was a second win in the race to go with the victory of Taghrooda in 2014. She went on to win the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot and Gosden hinted that while the Irish Oaks was an option for Enable, he would seriously consider the Ascot option when it is staged again next month. Gosden has a strong bunch of three-year-old fillies in his stable. When Shutter Speed, who like Enable carries the colours of Khaled Abdullah, easily won York’s Musidora Stakes over 10 furlongs, there never seemed a moment’s thought that she might be asked to run at Epsom as the French Oaks was nominated. Presumably, Gosden already knew by then he had a Classic hand to play with in Cheshire Oaks winner Enable. She pounced as the stamina of Aidan O’Brien’s Ryan Moore-ridden 1,000 Guineas winner Rhododendron ebbed away in a race run at the fast pace set by O’Brien’s seventh-placed Pocketfullofdreams. Dettori said: ‘I thought Ryan had got the better of me but passing the two-furlong pole I got him off the bridle. ‘I then felt I was definitely going to get to the line and he was not. ‘Conditions were bad and I didn’t want to take my hands off to celebrate. I just wanted to get her past the line and get the job done.’ The Oaks field had been reduced by one when US challenger Daddys Lil Darling bolted to the start and forced jockey Olivier Peslier to bail out before she then collided with plastic runners. O’Brien had had an equally dramatic build-up when two planes supposed to carry his runners from Ireland malfunctioned, one with a refuelling problem. A spare part had to be flown in from Belgium and the O’Brien team were delayed by four hours, eventually arriving as the first race was run at 2pm. What effect that had on Rhododendron is speculation but it did not stop stablemate Highland Reel winning the Coronation Stakes in typically gutsy fashion.