Thousands raised for Tylicki

Queen’s Trust roars home after jockey’s inspired ride Beholder beats Songbird at Breeders’ Cup meeting

Racing was last night united in rallying round Freddy Tylicki, the popular jockey who was paralysed from the waist down after being involved in a four-horse pile-up at Kempton on Monday.

A fund, set up by television pundit Matt Chapman when the extent of his injuries were made public in a statement by the Injured Jockeys Fund on Friday, had already raised £120,000 in 21 hours, including a pledge of £10,000 from the bookmaker Ladbroke Coral.

Tylicki, whose late father was a top jockey in Germany, clipped heels with the horse in front of him and came down, bringing three following horses in the closely-bunched field. He has been in intensive care since being flown from the track by air ambulance to St George’s Hospital, Tooting, where a T7 paralysis was diagnosed.

Paul Struthers, chief executive of the Professional Jockeys Association, put out a statement which said: “Racing may have many flaws but its strength is how it pulls together in difficult, tragic times. Freddy is one of the most popular members of the weighing room and will not lack for support.

“Injury is part and parcel of a jockey’s life to the point where even relatively serious injuries are considered ‘normal’. Even so, serious life-changing injuries are mercifully rare, and when they occur it hits all jockeys hard.”

Had he not been injured Tylicki would have been riding Mehronissa on the undercard at the prestigious Breeders’ Cup meeting in Santa Anita yesterday. Instead Frankie Dettori took his place on the unplaced runner. “Like everyone else in the weighing room we’re all devastated,” said Dettori.

The local stewards at Kempton looked into the incident on the night and deemed the fall accidental.

The British raid on the second day of the 33rd Breeders’ Cup got off to a terrific start last night when Frankie Dettori and Sir Michael Stoute, two old hands at these ‘world Championships,’ combined with Queen’s Trust, a 5-1 shot, to win the Filly And Mare Turf.

Stoute has been in good form since his arrival in California at the beginning of the week. The feeling was it might be the well-being of Queen’s Trust that was making him so happy and so it proved.

But it took a vintage ride from an inspired Dettori to get the Cheveley Parkowned and bred filly home in a photo finish from the favourite Lady Eli.

The pace was so strong that Queen’s Trust’s outside draw proved no hindrance, indeed it was so fast early on that even Aidan O’Brien’s front-running Pretty Perfect could get nowhere near the front. Dettori himself was outpaced and turning out of the back straight had only one horse behind him but he got into Lady Eli’s slipstream and followed the favourite through.

He still had seven in front of him as they lined up for home but, in the clear, Queen’s Trust ate up the ground and Dettori stuck her head in front a stride before the line with a diamond cutter’s precision.

Ever the showman Dettori plucked Queen’s Trust yellow and purple flower garland bare for the cameras before dismounting aerially.

“They got the jump on me out of the home turn and, my first reaction was I’ll be a good third,” explained the jockey whose 12th Breeders’ Cup winner this was.

“Then she started to motor. It’s funny. It’s a short straight but those last 100 yards make a big difference and she got into gear and as we flashed past the post I was pretty sure I’d won.”

Stoute did a good job in convincing anyone who would listen that Queen’s Trust had been unlucky all summer and so, on this form, it proved.

“I was a bit concerned about the draw but I had a good chat with Frankie and you don’t tell him what to do around here,” said Stoute who has now won this race three times and was taking his Breeders’ Cup tally to seven.

“She ran a great race in the Nassau Jumping for joy: Frankie Dettori celebrates winning on Queen’s Trust in some style behind Minding, she wasn’t quite good enough.

“She was unfortunate again on her last start [behind Journey at Ascot] but she came through the race well and I thought I’d like a crack at this.”

Persuading Cheveley Park, however, had been another matter. The owners David and Patricia Thompson, took a view that maybe the Breeders’ Cup was not for them when their horse Fun Fair broke a leg shortly after leaving the stalls 11 years ago.

“I wasn’t optimistic about it [being allowed to run] because I knew their stand,” added the trainer who has had horses for them for 35 years.

“But fortunately they came up with an affirmative and I have to say, thank God they did.”

After a slow start, O’Brien’s meeting took a turn for the better when he sent out the first and third, Highland Reel and Found, in the $4m Turf.

Highland Reel, the King George winner, was nominally Ballydoyle’s second string in the race with Ryan Moore staying loyal to his Arc winner Found.

If Dettori snatched victory on Queen’s Trust though, Seamus Heffernan, the long-serving loyal second jockey to O’Brien, blatantly stole the Longines sponsored Turf.

Allowed an easy lead on Highland Reel his race winning move was to kick six lengths clear down the back stretch. Flintshire went after him while Found, who had stumbled out of the stalls, was 15 lengths off the pace.

Although Heffernan started rowing the winner on the home turn Flintshire had just too much to do and, though he kept coming, could only reduce the lead to a length and three quarters at the line.

Behind Found in third was Stoute’s Ulysses finally beginning to show the potential of his breeding.

Having won a King George, a Breeders’ Cup in a course record time, an Arlington Million and a Hong Kong Vase as well as finishing second in the Arc, Highland Reel he might now finally have earned the respect that his bare results have lacked.

“Seamus gave him a great ride,” said O’Brien whose 23rd Group One winner of the season it was.

“Absolutely it was super. He’s a great horse. Knowing Highland Reel had gone Ryan looked after Found. She retires now and she’s been one of the great mares. We’re absolutely over the moon.”

Part-owner Michael Tabor said: “He’s a proper globe-trotting star and this track and the ground, everything suited him. Sometimes these things work out.”