RACING:FRANKIE DETTORI bridged a six-year gap to claim a seventh Classic success in Ireland with a thrilling last-gasp Darley Irish Oaks victory on Blue Bunting for Godolphin at the Curragh yesterday.
Both the flamboyant Italian superstar jockey and Sheikh Mohammed’s hugely powerful organisation hadn’t scored a Curragh Classic success since Dubawi’s 2005 Guineas win but they brought Aidan O’Brien’s domestic run of success to a halt yesterday.
At a critical stage of the race it looked like the Sheikh was going to have to endure more frustration in a race he sponsors as Dettori started to scrub away on Blue Bunting before the turn-in.
Up front, the Epsom heroine Dancing Rain started to fold as both O’Brien’s 5 to 4 favourite Wonder Of Wonders and Banimpire took over and settled down for a scrap. The only threat to their domination looked set to come from Laughing Lashes, whose jockey Fran Berry dropped his whip a furlong out. But a split-second piece of inspiration from Dettori changed the complexion of the race.
Switching his filly to the outside, Dettori inspired Blue Bunting into the sort of late rally that saw her claim Newmarket’s 1,000 Guineas earlier in the season and she nailed Banimpire by a short head in the shadow of the post.
“She’s a very cold filly and you have to scrub away on her, a bit like the Guineas. She hit a flat spot, running lazy, and I decided I was going to have to try and do something different. Once she got to the outside she was flying,” Dettori said.
Godolphin’s new trainer, Mahmood Al Zarooni, described Dettori’s effort as “a brilliant ride” and nominated the Yorkshire Oaks as a possible next target for Blue Bunting who reversed Epsom Oaks form with both Wonder Of Wonders and Dancing Rain.
“Epsom was a bit of a mess-up but now she is a dual-classic winner and she will get the credit she deserves,” Dettori added.
“The pace was solid. All the four good ones, we were all together turning for home and the best filly won – mine. She was the only one who came home. I didn’t know I had won until I passed the line. I had to ask Kevin Manning. I don’t ride here very often and he told me I had won. But the Curragh has been very lucky for me,” he added.
Johnny Murtagh was out of luck on Dancing Rain in the Oaks and also missed out in the Group Three Kilboy Estate Stakes as he flew home on John Oxx’s Kirinda only to come up short of that one’s stable companion, Manieree.
Niall McCullagh was on board the well-backed, pace-forcing winner and Oxx was understandably pleased to secure a one-two.
“She burnt them all off early in the straight, Kirinda was held up and might have been closer. The winner is a good filly who needs soft ground and after the dry months that type of ground was hard to get,” the trainer said.
Fire Lily comprehensively beat off the colts in the Group Three Anglesey Stakes to score for David Wachman and Wayne Lordan, beating another filly in After and setting herself up for a possible attempt on the Moyglare Stud Stakes.
“She has always shown she is pretty smart. She was outpaced in the middle of the Queen Mary before flying home at the finish. The step up in trip was no harm to her,” Wachman said.
Apollo received 25 to 1 quotes for next year’s Epsom Derby after making a winning debut in the seven-furlong maiden, beating off Newbury Hall under Ryan Moore.
Workforce catches the eye
SO YOU Think got the better of Workforce in the Eclipse earlier in the month and Aidan O’Brien looks like he will have to again take on last year’s Derby and Arc hero with St Nicholas Abbey if he is to win a fourth King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, writes Brian O’Connor.
Workforce impressed in a piece of work at Newmarket over the weekend and prompted some bookmakers to cut him to 3 to 1 for Britain’s premier all-aged middle distance event.
Even though Godolphin’s Rewilding, conqueror of So You Think in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, is due to return to Ascot as well, St Nicholas Abbey continues to dominate the King George betting on the back of his dramatic Coronation Cup success at Epsom.
O’Brien has won three of the last 10 King George renewals with Galileo in 2001 and back-to-back victories in 2007-08 for Dylan Thomas and Duke Of Marmalade.
This evening’s home action is at Ballinrobe where Leah Claire can make it third time lucky over jumps in the concluding maiden hurdle.
The three-time flat winner ran twice over flights last winter and did enough to suggest she is capable of winning a race of this standard. She also ran a good second to Bondage on the flat on her last outing at Tipperary.
Ken Condon has his string in outstanding form and Charpoy could edge Black Belt in the nine-furlong maiden on the strength of that while the Cork bumper winner, Giant’s Quest, can kick things off successfully for punters in the opener.
