Frankie out to bite the hand that feeds him
IT might be a record-equalling fourth win in Europe’s most valuable race but if Frankie Dettori wins this afternoon’s Qatar Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, the celebrations are likely to be unusually muted.
Post-race might even be a Dettori collectors’ item — a Group One win without his trademark flying dismount.
The three-time champion jockey lines up on 11-2 third favourite Golden Horn trying to cap a season which has seen his career spectacularly resurrected.
Together they have won the Derby, Eclipse and Irish Champion Stakes, while Dettori has won four other Group One races.
But if Golden Horn lifts the £2.2million first prize, it will be at the expense of history-seeking Treve, the dual winner owned by Dettori’s boss, Sheik Joaan Al Thani.
He is the man who rescued Dettori’s career in 2013 from a seemingly terminal tailspin after his six-month ban for testing positive for cocaine and split from Sheik Mohammed and his Godolphin empire.
After three successive defeats and in the build-up to Treve’s second Arc win 12 months ago, Dettori was replaced on the mare by Thierry Jarnet. Trainer Criquette Head-Maarek argued that the style of the veteran French jockey suited the mare best.
Dettori said: ‘My boss is very sporting. He wanted me to ride Treve — it was Criquette who took me off the mare.
‘Treve is amazing and a worthy favourite. I have not ridden her for a year but, from what I have seen, she is probably better than last season.
‘It looks a vintage Arc. I am riding the Derby winner in probably the most important race of the year and it does not get much better than that. He is in good shape. Treve looks very hard to beat but we are going to give it a good go.’
This afternoon the 44-year-old will be riding in his 27th Arc in 28 years. The only time he has missed the race is when he broke his ankle days before he was supposed to ride Treve in 2013.
A wide draw is a negative for Golden Horn but drying ground a big positive. The going is officially Good but some jockeys riding yesterday, including William Buick who rides Golden Horn’s stablemate Eagle Top, felt it was more like Good to firm.
That assessment is supported by Candarliya breaking the course record in yesterday’s Prix de Royallieu and the eclipse of soft-ground lover Cirrus Des Aigles and French Navy behind Jarnet-ridden Free Port Lux in the Prix Dollar.
The positive for eased 11-10 favourite Treve, who has won on good ground but excels on soft, is that she slammed Candarliya by six lengths in last month’s Prix Vermeille. She will be tough to beat.
Last year’s second Flintshire may be worth an each-way bet but, aside from Golden Horn, the main threat is likely to come from exciting French Derby winner New Bay.
His trainer Andre Fabre, who won the Group One Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket yesterday, is the most successful trainer in Arc history and is chasing his eighth win.