Dettori: Arrest is a blessing
FRANKIE DETTORI is as relaxed as ever and feels he has “nothing to prove” ahead of his last ever Betfred Derby ride aboard Arrest.
The veteran jockey – who will bring the curtain down on his glittering career at the end of 2023 – will join forces with John and Thady Gosden for the blue riband, an event he has won twice before aboard Authorized and Golden Horn, in 2007 and 2015 respectively.
Arrest is a son of Frankel who took an established Derby trial when landing the Chester Vase by six and a half lengths in May, though the soft going meant that race was run in significantly different conditions to those expected this weekend.
Colt
But the Juddmonteowned colt has undertaken a pleasing gallop since at Epsom, and his status as a Derby hopeful is a boon for Dettori as he did not expect to pick up a competitive ride in his final year in the saddle.
Dettori said: “It’s my last year, I thought I’d find it hard to find a Derby ride, never mind a Derby ride with a chance.
“It’s surprising to me that I’m in this position and I have a shot at it, a proper shot at it. I’m very excited.
“When I said in December I was going to retire, I never thought I’d get the ride on a horse with a great chance to win the Derby, so it is a great position to be in. (below inset)
“Arrest has filled out to be a good-looking horse, very strong, he’s improved throughout the spring and won his trial very well, even if it was a non-event on that ground.
“We know the distance is no problem, he’s full of himself and it looks a wide-open Derby. I’ve got as good a chance as anyone.
“I wouldn’t like to swap him with anything else because I feel like I’m going in with as good a chance as anyone. He’s got a bit of a round action, a high knee action, we took him to Epsom and gave him a bit of a gallop round and he seems fine.” With Auguste Rodin having a question mark after his eclipse in the Guineas, there is no runaway favourite for the race this year. But Dettori has an eye on Michael Stoute’s Passenger, a maiden winner who suffered a luckless passage through the Dante before deadheating for third.
“He’s the one that we still don’t know how good he is, he never got a fair crack at the Dante and he’s only run twice, so he could be anything,” he said.
Arrest is drawn in stall 13 of 14 runners and while the perceived wisdom is that a higher draw is generally beneficial at Epsom, Dettori does not think the stall position is as significant a factor.
He said: “To win the Derby you need a good horse, the draw makes no difference. Simple as that!”