Dettori enjoys golden day
Great display of horsemanship ensures success for colt in Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Puzzled Logan may bring Volkstok’n’barrell home
The locals and, indeed, most neutrals turned up in droves at Longchamp yesterday yearning and expecting to see Treve make history with a third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victory, but, instead, witnessed one of the finest rides in the race’s great history as Frankie Dettori stole the show aboard Golden Horn.
Two years ago, Dettori, nursing a broken ankle, famously said that he needed extra painkillers for his broken heart after watching Treve, whom he would have ridden, win the 2013 Arc in spectacular fashion.
Last year he was taken off the horse after a Royal Ascot defeat at the insistence of trainer Criquette Head-Maarek.
So, though celebrations were slightly restrained, by Dettori standards, we can be sure that the threetime champion jockey was bursting with pride and satisfaction inside, his day made complete by a hug from his son Leo, making the trip to celebrate his 16th birthday.
Dettori’s belief in the Derby winner Golden Horn was every bit as strong as almost everyone else’s in Treve — and nowhere was that faith demonstrated more than at the start, when, from his wide draw, he made the first of two crucial tactical decisions.
He had two choices: stay wide and lose ground, or drop in and ride for luck. Dettori found a third way: stay wide without losing ground.
Dettori kept Golden Horn so wide for the first furlong that the rest must have wondered what he was playing at, but this was part of the plan.
Trainer John Gosden elaborated: “If you stay wide, you can ride your own little race, not be bothered by anyone, and then slot across.” Volkstok’n’barrell’s Melbourne spring campaign may be over.
Ruakaka co-trainer Donna Logan is monitoring the effects of the topliner driving a nail into his foot during his unplaced run in Sunday’s Turnbull Stakes at Flemington.
He faded in the home straight to ninth, behind Preferment after sitting outside the leader.
The run mystified Donna Logan. “I didn’t want him ridden that handy and the way he was ridden out of the barrier meant he was always going to be with the leaders.
“He was still only two lengths from the winner, but he’s learnt nothing from the run and we don’t know where we are with him. Is it that he’s
Golden Horn was then able to track Treve’s pacemaker, Shahah, close to the rail, while the great mare herself, nicely drawn in stall eight, was now out wide and nearer last than first, in exactly the sort of position the winner might have found himself in had Dettori not made such an early move.
Dettori made his second decisive move early in the home straight and though Andre Fabre’s pair Flintshire and New Bay made a decent fist of chasing him down, neither looked not as good the left-handed Melbourne way around? Is it that it’s a bit tough for a spring 4-year-old to step up to top weight-for-age racing? Is he going to go better in the autumn?
“I’m in two minds about whether to bring him home and if there is any consequence in where he has punctured his foot then he’ll definitely be coming home. You can’t keep finishing a couple of lengths off them and saying you’re unlucky.
“He’s not going disgracefully, but I’ve got no intention of chasing my tail with him — he’s too good for that.”
Logan has yet to discuss Sunday’s tactics with rider Opie Bosson.
“There’s plenty back here for him, he can run in the Zabeel Classic and then attack Sydney in the autumn, we know he goes well there.” like catching him. Treve, though plugging on into fourth, did not seem happy on ground described by most as good to firm.
“I’m sure she’s done her stuff now, but hopefully she will become a wonderful broodmare,” said Al Shaqab Racing’s manager Harry Herbert, who expects Treve to now be retired.
Golden Horn will start stud duties next year, but may have one more run, in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.
What would a Melbourne Spring Carnival be without Zabeel?
Well, it’s going to be at least a little while before we find out.
The great stallion, buried at Cambridge Stud less than two weeks ago, has come to the rescue on many major occasions. He did it yet again when Australian trainers were getting migraines thinking how they were going to topple the might of Europeans tackling Melbourne Cups.
With typical lateral thinking, Chris Waller came up with a backdoor solution — forget the overpriced Europeans — let’s get back to Zabeel.
A couple of years ago Waller bought 10 New Zealand yearlings at Karaka, mainly Zabeels and on Derby morning in Melbourne last spring announced: “Australian trainers should forget about the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups and concentrate on winning our derbys”, then came out in the afternoon and won the Victorian Derby with Preferment.
It may no longer be a case of forgetting about the Melbourne Cup, because the way Preferment won Sunday’s Turnbull Stakes he has leapt straight into Cup contention.
Preferment sat three wide without cover in his Derby victory prompting co-owner Gerard Peterson to observe: “At least we know he’ll run the 3200m of a Melbourne Cup, because he’s just done that.” Could be prophetic. For the record, Zabeel’s Melbourne Cup profile: Might And Power 1997, Jezabeel, Champagne quinella 1998, Efficient 2007.