FREELANCE FOR FRANKIE

Frankie Dettori
(Image : CNN)

“We haven’t seen the last of Senor Dettori”

When Godolphin’s star jockey, Frankie Dettori took the ride on the opposition Coolmore’s Camelot in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1) a fortnight back, we thought we’d struck a new angle in predicting a rift between jockey and employer was unavoidable, and that the winds were “certainly a changin”. Yet someone out there even accused us of “sour grapes”, though what that had to do with the battle between Coolmore and Godolphin, we don’t know.

The truth is, you didn’t have to be a genius to know that this was something of a thumb on the nose from Dettorri to his erstwhile employers, and whatever the reasons, that’s how life is. Either way, nobody has a monopoly on anybody else’s money or services, and it seems we were on the money in suggesting that Frankie might be on his way. Just yesterday, the website of Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation read “Frankie Dettorri will not be retained by Godolphin next year”.

Dettori, whose 18-year spell in the royal blue began with the ride on the operation’s first Classic winner, Ballanchine in 1994, has registered 110 pattern race successes for the firm in total. According to Godolphin’s racing manager, Simon Crisford, “Frankie has made the difference between winning and losing on so many occasions in the world’s biggest races. However he is looking for a fresh challenge, and we felt that the retainer was not really working, so this is the best way forward.” If riding for the enemy in the Arc was not what was meant by “the retainer is not really working”, it’s anybody’s guess what it might mean.

And while Dettori may not always be counted upon to be the arch diplomat, he certainly played this one like he was blessed by the Vatican, “I’ve had 18 wonderful years. Godolphin has been a major part of what I’ve achieved in racing, and I’ve loved every minute of it. I feel the time has come for a change. My position in the stable has changed a little bit, and I need a new challenge. Sheikh Mohammed had the confidence to take me on board when I was young, and we smashed every record together”.

One thing you can count on: we haven’t seen the last of Senor Dettori.

THE ARC : A POST-MORTEM

Solemia wins the 2012 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe from Orfevre
(Photo : Irish Times)

QATAR PRIX DE L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE (Group 1)
Longchamp, Turf, 2400m
7 October 2012

All sorts of statements have followed in the wake of Sunday’s shock outcome to Europe’s most famous horserace, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1). Some of them have to do with breeding, others with talents, and others with the preservation of value, but they all point to the intricacies that keep us bewitched with the sport.

Firstly, the race was an acknowledgement of the value of old fashioned private breeding programmes, and it is something of a lament that so many of these great entities have rather quickly disappeared as features of the international breeding scene. For centuries past, the sport of racing was a contest between men and women whose primary interest lay in victory, not in the commercial spoils of their enterprises. Within the last century, we recall the names of Lord Derby and the “first” Aga Khan, the Frenchman Boussac, the Italian Tesio, the Americans Phipps, Hancock and Calumet Farm, and South Africa’s Oppenheimers and the Ellises of our own Hartford. Latterly though, the cost of maintaining these establishments has made fossils of the bulk of them, and there are now just a handful around the world who still have the luxury of maintaining their operations. In France there are just two major private breeding operations left, one belonging to the art magnates, the Wildensteins, and the other the Wertheimers, who’ve made their dough with Chanel.

Sunday’s Arc winner, Solemia is a salute to the Wertheimer’s perseverance, coming as she does from a family they’ve kept the faith with since the 50s, and whose real eminence came initially in the form of the French 2000 Guineas hero, Green Dancer, a successful sire first in France and then inevitably for those days, at Gainesway Farm in the United States. This family bowed not once on Sunday, but twice, as the same female line produced the heroine of the Two-Year-Old fillies Group One, the Prix Marcel Boussac in the form of Silasol. Solemia is one of six Stakes winners of her “Blue Hen” mother, the Shirley Heights mare, Brooklyn’s Dance, who in turn is the grandmother of the juvenile ace. It is also the family that gave us the excellent English Derby winner, Authorized, who has a very attractive filly in next month’s Emperors Palace Ready to Run Sale.

As for the Arc itself, the big disappointment was obviously Camelot, who had appeared earlier in the year to be the only horse with any pretence at rivalling the great Frankel, if only their aptitudes would slot into the same kilometre. He was unbeaten until his failed attempt at becoming Britain’s first Triple Crown winner in 42 years, and now he’s flopped in the Arc, inexplicably for a horse whose forte’ was his “juice” in the closing stages of a race. He was beautifully poised just off the pace as they turned for home, but when Frankie Dettori pressed the button, he simply came up empty. That hasn’t deterred his trainer, Aidan O’Brien, who insists he remains ‘the best horse he’s ever trained’, and that’s saying something when they include Galileo, Giant’s Causeway, Henrythenavigator, Dylan Thomas, Duke Of Marmalade and Rip Van Winkel. Let’s not forget though: it even happened to Nijinsky, who after winning the Triple Crown, collapsed in the Arc and again in the Champion Stakes.

But there was another horse in the race whose performance suggested he was something special, and that was the Japanese-bred and owned Orfevre, like our own Admire Main, a descendant of Sunday Silence. There was no lack of gas when he put his head down in the straight, obliterating the best Europe could offer in a matter of strides. In the event, he was caught in the last 50 metres, but that didn’t discourage his champion rider, Christophe Soumillion, from proclaiming him “the best horse I’ve ever ridden. Once I had the lead, no-one could’ve imagined we’d be beaten. The horses overconfidence defeated him and 50 metres from the line, I saw I’d have difficulty getting him going again. I hope he will run against Frankel in the Champion Stakes or else in the Japan Cup”. Brave words, but you can’t take them lightly, because Soumillion has thrown his leg over a few in his time.

SOLEMIA : PRIX DE L'ARC DE TRIOMPHE SHOCK WIN

Click above to watch Solemia winning the 2012 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
(Image: Courier Mail - Footage: At The Races)

QATAR PRIX DE L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE (Group 1)
Longchamp, Turf, 2400m
7 October 2012

Firmly under the radar despite a latest third in the G1 Prix Vermeille over the same track and trip September 16, the Wertheimers’ filly Solemia (Ire) (Poliglote) caused a shock of major proportions in the G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe when wearing down Orfevre (Jpn) (Stay Gold) in the final strides under Olivier Peslier. In doing so, the home-bred provided trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias with a first renewal of the great race and her rider with a record-equaling fourth at a huge 41-1.

Always traveling easily in a prominent fourth against the rail, the bay was left in front at the top of the stretch but was soon swamped by Orfevre as Christophe Soumillon committed on the Japanese raider with 300 meters remaining. Although he quickly gained two lengths on her, he veered right to the rail and gave Solemia a chance which she took with relish as she broke the hearts of the raider’s followers with a withering effort close home. At the line, there was a neck separating the duo, with seven lengths back to Masterstroke (USA) (Monsun) in third and a further length back to Haya Landa (Fr) (Lando) in fourth.

www.prixarcdetriomphe.com

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

THE FRANKIE FACTOR - 16:25 TODAY!

Frankie Dettori and Camelot
(Image : Stan James/Telegraph)

QATAR PRIX DE L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE (Group 1)
Longchamp, Turf, 2400m
7 October 2012

There was a sense of inevitability when Frankie Dettori was handed the spare ride of the season on Camelot (GB) (Montjeu), and a flying dismount after today’s G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe would be a dream end to an unusually average year for the famed Italian.

The record of the 3-year-old generation in this Longchamp feature speaks for itself, and G1 Epsom Derby winners to have come here and triumphed in recent times include Sinndar (Ire) (Grand Lodge), Sea the Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross) and Workforce (GB) (King’s Best), while Frankie’s first of his three Arcs came on the ‘Blue Riband’ winner Lammtarra (USA) (Nijinsky) 17 years ago. If he is able to guide Derrick Smith, Susan Magnier and Michael Tabor’s talented and much-vaunted colt to the post first, he will also equal the joint-record of four winning rides held by Jacques Doyasbere, Freddy Head, Yves Saint-Martin and Pat Eddery.

Trainer Aidan O’Brien was unequivocal in his praise for the rider at Dundalk on Friday evening. “We’re delighted to have got a great rider like Frankie - as everybody knows, he has all the experience in the world,” O’Brien said.

www.prixarcdetriomphe.com

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

COOLMORE vs DARLEY : THE WINDS OF CHANGE

“Rumblings within the Godolphin Camp”

The announcement this week that Frankie Dettori would be taking the mount on Camelot in Sunday’s renewal of Europe’s greatest horse race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1), was pretty matter-of-fact. Yet there is a strong underlying political message in it. You see, Frankie Dettori is one of the world’s top jockeys of all time, and for well over a decade, he has been the unrivalled favourite of his employer, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai. His annual retainer was rumoured to be in the millions of dollars, and besides being rewarded for every ride and the commissions that accrue to jockeys on their prize money, he was showered with lavish presents for big race victories.

Some seven or eight years ago, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin racing operation was pretty much at the summit of the sport’s most successful racing operations. Ironically, the Sheikh chose that time to declare war on their principal adversaries, Coolmore. Nobody really knows the reasons behind it, but it was suspected that the Sheikh felt the commercial traffic between the two operations was “one-way”. He was providing liberal patronage for the Coolmore stallions, and was spending vast sums on their progeny at sales venues around the world. Coolmore were seldom if ever seen to put their hands up in the auction ring for a Darley (Sheikh Mohammed’s breeding arm) sired yearling, and they never sent a mare to any of the Sheikh’s own stallions. Besides, Sheikh Mohammed had established a global showpiece in Dubai’s World Cup meeting at the end of March, boasting the world’s richest prize money, and there was scarcely a Coolmore horse in sight.

It has to be said though, that at the time Coolmore presided over the most formidable band of stallion material in Europe (if not the world), and that really was the reason behind the Sheikh’s regular dominance of the market for youngsters sired by these stallions. In simple terms, he wanted to be the best, and so he had to buy the best. At the same time, Coolmore were also his principal opposition at the races, and they too wanted to own the best, so that they not only competed with the Sheikh in the sales ring, (which meant that quite often they were pushing him to pay substantially more for stock in which they may sometimes have owned an interest as well), but they had the luxury (and indeed, satisfaction) of being able to sell him services in numbers to their stallions. They had obviously taken a commercial decision as far as the patronage of the Sheikh’s stallions was concerned, and felt they could do better by continuing to use their own, a point borne out by results at the races. And when it came to the World Cup, Coolmore considered the timing inopportune: by March, their horses were in need of rest after demanding  European campaigns.

For obvious reasons, lean times followed for the Godolphin operation in the wake of the declaration of war, and Coolmore have pretty much had the European racing scene to themselves since then, with the progeny of Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Montjeu, Danehill, Giant’s Causeway and Danehill Dancer, and the associated Maktoum entities have pretty much been feeding on the left-overs.

In the midst of all this, Frankie Dettori remained staunchly “Sheikh Mohammed”, and those who follow the game closely will recall many an embrace, particularly in their heyday, between jockey and master following a big race victory.

In more recent times though, there have been rumblings within the Godolphin camp about Frankie’s position as the “chosen one”, and that of the new pretender to his throne, Mickael Barzalona, who has had the pick of the rides in recent seasons. That there is a rift developing, whatever they may say, is unavoidable, and in his appointment to ride Camelot, arguably the best middle distance three-year-old Europe has seen in some years, (perhaps decades), there are two messages. Coolmore have laid down a challenge by employing Sheikh Mohammed’s darlin’ and the winds are certainly a changin’.