Frankie’s got Star quality
RED-HOT DETTORI THE IRISH OAKS KING
STAR CATCHER wasn’t for catching as she continued Frankie Dettori’s golden summer with an all-the-way Irish Oaks win.
Anthony Oppenheimer, her owner, paid €40,000 to add the John Gosden-saddled daughter of Sea The Stars, winner of the Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot last month, to the field for the Curragh Classic.
And the money proved well spent as Star Catcher, sent off at 7/ 2, led from the stalls and answered Dettori’s every call to repel the challenge of the Ribblesdale runner-up Fleeting by half a length.
Fleeting’s Aidan O’Brientrained stablemate Pink Dogwood, the 5/ 2 favourite, passed the post four-and-a-half lengths back in third. The Italian, continuing a hot streak that has left an unsightly dent in the bookies’ profits, beamed: “This filly has done nothing but improve.
“We spoke to the owners about supplementing her and put our necks on the block.
“But John is a great trainer and he felt good about it – the vibes were good and we knew she was good enough.”
Peach Tree, a 20/1 shot also housed in O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stable, was expected to make the running for her betterfancied stable-companions – but master tactician Dettori had other ideas.
He said: “When the obvious front-runner couldn’t get to the front, I thought, ‘I’ve got to make my own way home from here!’.
“Then it was down to me to get the fractions right, but having a tailwind on a frontrunner helped me in the straight.
“I heard Fleeting getting to me, but Star Catcher could have found more – it was a great effort,” concluded the 48-yearold, completing an Irish Oaks hat-trick for British raiders after the successes of Gosden’s Enable – hot favourite for next Saturday’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot – in 2017 and Sea Of Class 12 months ago.
Bargain- buy Bettys Hope staged a late smash and grab at Newbury to take the £250,000 winner’s cheque in the Weatherbys Super Sprint back to Rod Millman’s Devon stable.
“My wife Louise bought her at the sales,” revealed the trainer. “There wasn’t any interest, so she only paid three grand!”