Dettori delight as Cracksman returns in style
FRANKIE DETTORI hailed the perfect comeback for Cracksman as the son of Frankel stretched to a comfortable three-length win in the Prix Ganay.
On a day when Longchamp’s new £120million grandstand was officially opened, Cracksman delivered in a style which heightened anticipation of a clash with John Gosdentrained stablemate Enable back here for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October.
Dettori sat behind Wren’s Day before launching his challenge early in the home straight. Wren’s Day hung in for second with Cloth of Stars back in third.
After milking the Paris crowd’s applause and doing a flying dismount, the only sore point for Dettori was when Cracksman stood on the jockey’s foot, turning the Italian’s wide smile into a grimace.
Dettori said: ‘I couldn’t be more impressed. He is one of my best horses and he stays a mile- and- a- half, so it was always my plan to sit close to the pace. I did not want it to turn into a sprint.
‘Cracksman has always been quite good mentally, but now he is getting stronger to carry that big frame.’
Next, Gosden has his eye on a tilt at the Group One Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh on May 27. Cracksman, rated Europe’s best three-year-old in 2017, is then likely to go for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
After discussions with Enable’s owner Khaled Abdullah at the track yesterday, Gosden said it looked like the 2017 Arc winner would make her comeback in the Coronation Cup at Epsom. A first meeting of the season between Cracksman and Enable is likely to come in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in July. Meanwhile, Gosden will leave Roaring Lion and Without Parole in Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas at today’s penultimate declaration stage. The former finished a poor third in the Craven Stakes but Gosden said: ‘He has sparked up a lot since then. There is every chance he could run.’