Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ITV CALL UP FRANKIE AFTER KO
Roy’s the boy in St James’s Palace
FRANKIE DETTORI will join ITV’S Royal Ascot team after a fractured shoulder ruled the world’s most famous jockey out of the glittering five-day fixture. Dettori, who suffered the injury when unshipped at Yarmouth last Tuesday, said: “Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of my year — I’ve had so much success there — so you can imagine how I’m feeling right now. “I’ve been trying my hardest to get fit for the meeting, but I’ve got a double fracture in my shoulder so I won’t be riding. I’ll be counting down the days until next year.” Dettori, who missed his 57th Royal Ascot triumph when Lady Aurelia won yesterday’s King’s Stand Stakes, added: “I’m going to see the specialist and then I’ll be joining ITV for Friday and Saturday. It’s not riding, but it’s the next best thing!”
BARNEY ROY scorched to victory in the St James’s Palace Stakes to spearhead a Godolphin treble — 40 years to the day after boss Sheikh Mohammed’s first winner. Trainer Richard Hannon was left frustrated after the colt’s second to Churchill in the Guineas at Newmarket last month. But 5-2 chance Barney Roy turned the form round under James Doyle, beating Lancaster Bomber by a length, as 1-2 favourite Churchill toiled in fourth. “We felt he was unlucky in the Guineas – he nodded going into the Dip,” said the trainer, who could now step Barney Roy up to 10 furlongs for the Coral-eclipse at Sandown on July 8. Godolphin was plunged into turmoil when chief executive John Ferguson resigned after a lacklustre Epsom. But Sheikh Mohammed, 40 years after Hatta’s success at Brighton in 1977, smiled: “Royal Ascot is a great place to win.” Godolphin’s meeting had begun with a victory – courtesy of in the Queen Anne. The William Buick-ridden Ribchester Lockinge winner justified 11-10 favouritism, and his trainer Richard Fahey said: “He has huge gears and was never in trouble.” The Godolphin treble was completed Sound And by Buick and Silence, who beat Roussel, carrying the owner’s second colours, in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes. Wesley Ward’s prediction that Lady Aurelia was “aces” ahead of the King’s Stand Stakes proved spot-on as last year’s Queen Mary Stakes heroine, on whom John Velazquez deputised for the injured Frankie Dettori, powered to a three-length margin.