Daily Racing Thread Thursday 16th. June 2022
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That is two years running that Frankie has blown the Gold Cup.
This Thursday won’t be making it to Frankie’s career highlight reel as he has had a couple of other shockers this week. I note that both the trainer and the owner chose their post race comments carefully.
I expect plenty of punters will be hoping that Inspiral gets an inspired ride from the popular Italian in Friday’s feature.
There comes a time in every jockey's career when they don't have the skills they used to have. Maybe Dettori has reached that. I thought he rode a poor race in the Oaks. I know he was left at the start but they went slow enough for him to catch up: to me he lost the race through poor judgement. The Lord North debacle shouldn't have happened. I do think he got the Gold Cup wrong.
There are a dearth of good stayers these days. I don't think Sagaro would have had any problem beating Stradivarius any day of the week, and must be rated the finest Gold Cup winner of the last 50 years. So although I think Dettori rode a bad race yesterday I also think it may have revealed that Stradivarius, though a very good horse, was a bit one-dimensional as a stayer. If he was truly a great Gold Cup horse, why didn't he run the race from the front yesterday or indeed last year? Perhaps he didn't truly stay the Gold Cup distance? If he did then Dettori rode an even more injudicious race yesterday.
My guess is this could be Dettori's final year and Gosden will be looking for a new jockey relationship.
At the post in the later races Frankie had a face like thunder. I reckon Gosden really put a flea in his ear!
However he's not the only one to ride a bad race yesterday. Too many jockeys today seem incapable of switching their whip hand in a timely manner. It would have served Hanagan well if he could. However Marquand does not have that problem, yet he switched from a left-handed drive to a right-handed drive and back to a left-handed drive in the matter of a furlong. If he'd kept in his original left hand he'd have got a lot closer in the Ribblesdale.
I take your point about the lack of depth of quality in the staying division these days as what we have seen in the last couple of decades is one decent stayer come along and pulverise fields that largely seem to be made up of slow plodders (either flat horses that cannot win over middle distances or National Hunt horses).
I think that Stradivarius has been quite a decent horse and in his younger days he would be handy enough and would then put his races to bed with a quick burst of acceleration that none of his opponents could match. The last two years in the Gold Cup, Dettori has made the same riding error twice. You would think that having given the horse far too much to do last year that he would not have repeated the tactic this year. Perhaps age is catching up with the horse and he is finding it harder to stay with younger rivals but I think that the owner (and trainer) have every reason to feel aggrieved this year.
I would not be so keen to blame Dettori for the defeat of the favourite in The Oaks (obviously punters do). His horse stumbled leaving the stalls so he probably was not where he wanted to be and had to come wide around the field. Perhaps he could have used some of his horse up to race nearer the lead rather than sitting in the last three but the winner was on his inside at Tattenham Corner. Two furlongs from home he was travelling better than the winner (who took a shorter route) but his filly hung into the whip across the camber in the final furlong while the winner kept a truer line.
Apparently Gosden felt Dettori should have won on Saga, as well as Strad.
Can't agree about the Oaks, I felt he thought he had it won at the distance and didn't push on. That day he rode a poor race on Pyledriver too, and I will be very surprised with that colt's next run if Dettori is invited to ride him.
Can't agree about the Oaks, I felt he thought he had it won at the distance and didn't push on. That day he rode a poor race on Pyledriver too, and I will be very surprised with that colt's next run if Dettori is invited to ride him.
I'm not quite as extreme as SBC in thinking jockeys are just monkeys, but I do think 90% of the time it's almost immaterial who rides the horse. Every now and then jockeys ride an inspired race (Dettori in the Arc), but sometimes they ride bad races and cause the defeat of their mounts. I think Dettori had a bad Thursday.
