FAB FRANK IS OUT OF THIS WORLD
FRANKIE DETTORI captured his fourth Dubai World Cup – and his first for 16 years – as Country Grammer scored for under-fire American trainer
Bob Baffert at Meydan.
Baffert has seen his reputation battered by a string of failed drugs tests – and the 69-year-old is currently banned from saddling runners in the Kentucky Derby.
Compatriot Todd Pletcher saddled favourite Life Is Good for the £9.1million race, but the hotpot weakened into fourth as Dettori and Country Grammer pounced inside the final furlong to beat fellow American Hot Rod Charlie by a length and three-quarters.
“It’s surreal,” said Dettori, who won his first Dubai World Cup in 2000 aboard the ill-fated Dubai Millennium.
“When I passed the furlong pole I thought about all the years gone by. Such a great feeling.
“It’s the first time Bob has used me in 30 years – I hope I don’t have to wait another 30!” concluded the Italian, whose Lord North marked his title defence in the Group 1 Dubai Turf by dead-heating with Panthalassa – one of five Japanese-trained winners on the big-money card.
As the domestic Flat season began at Doncaster, punters made the William Haggas-trained Mujtaba the 3-1 favourite for the SBK Lincoln Handicap – but victory went to former Somerville Lodge inmate Johan.
Successful jockey Silvestre de Sousa, riding as a freelance this year after his split from former bosses King Power Racing, said: “This win is a big help.”
■ BENOIT DE LA SAYETTE, the teenage jockey hit by a six-month cocaine ban after landing the 2021 Lincoln, scored on his first ride back as Rubbeldiekatz won at Wolverhampton.