Frankie’s future isn’t as grim as you think

ONE could only imagine what John Gosden was thinking when Frankie Dettori pulled back Stradivarius from his prominent position at the start of last Thursday’s Ascot Gold Cup and then was a hostage to fortune in a tactically slowly run race that did not play to his mount’s strengths. The trainer’s concern was probably on a similar level to the pocket talk of punters who back Dettori at Ascot because it is a track he excels at as a rider.

It wasn’t the case this year and so the Dettori-Gosden partnership ends. There were plenty of Frankie flashpoints at Royal Ascot. Was he weak in a bunched finish on Mighty Ulysses in the St James’s

Palace? What on earth happened in the stalls on Lord North in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes? The mid-race manoeuvre that rushed up Stowell too quickly, the glancing over on Harrovian when the only danger was in front and had flown. And Saga would have undoubtedly won the Britannia had Dettori gone a bit sooner.

While punters and pundits have the luxury to be publically vocal in their criticism of Dettori, it was a surprise to see Gosden call it out in the same manner. For two respectable figures who have been in the racing game for a long time, this divorce did not need to be as public and as ugly as this.

When Inspiral won last Friday to get ‘that monkey off the back’ for Dettori as Gosden put it, that ought to have put the Stradivarius debacle to bed. While Dettori took the weekend off, possibly to the chagrin of Gosden, Nashwa won the

French Oaks with Hollie Doyle in the saddle. Gosden hinted at change.

The word ‘sabbatical’ suggests Gosden has left the door slightly ajar for Dettori but it looks a tall order for the 51-year-old to prise that open again.

Who knows what the future holds. Given that jockeys are only at one meeting per day, Covid opened up the freelance market and Dettori has other trainers and owners onside, it’s unlikely he’ll be starved of opportunities. There are signs his star is in decline as Father Time waits for nobody, but he’s not down and out quite yet.