A sixth riding offence of the season cost Frankie Dettori his mount in the Japan Cup as he was handed a worldwide riding ban yesterday. He was forced to miss one of the world's richest prizes, which he captured last year on Singspiel, and the Super Jockeys Challenge, also in Japan, as part of a 21-day suspension.
Dettori, who announced yesterday that he will cut down on his riding schedule next season, will serve 14 days of the sentence from next Tuesday, November 18th until December 1st, missing his dates in Tokyo on November 23rd and 30th. But the remaining seven days have been deferred for six months until May 13th and will only be triggered if he re-offends during that period.
Dettori was referred to the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee in London under the "totting up" system for his riding of newcomer Baajil at Newmarket on October 31st.
He had hoped to ride the Luca Cumani challenger Mons in Japan and was to represent Britain in the jockeys' contest the following weekend.
"I didn't know what to expect. I knew it would be around 21 days and 21 days we got," Dettori said afterwards. "But I am a little bit disappointed because I thought it was going to cover only English racing days. "I'm not just missing the Japan Cup but the Super Jockeys championship the week after when I was meant to represent England." Dettori virtually gave Kieren Fallon a free hand in the destiny of next year's jockeys' championship by confirming he is cutting down his riding appearances.
At the age of 26, the jockey wants to concentrate on winning the big races and not take part in the high summer dash from afternoon to evening meetings.
The effort required to maintain a challenge is proving a drain on the rider and he now wants to follow the more selective policy adopted by Richard Dunwoody over jumps.
"That's more or less what I want to do. It's very hard to find a happy medium," he said. "But obviously I'm going to concentrate on my big job with Godolphin, the bigger races and I'm not going to tear around riding the 1,300 races I did in 1995 and 1,000 in 1996. But at the other end I'm not just going to ride 200 races."
At a later inquiry Paul Carberry had a five-day ban increased to seven days. His appeal was dismissed after the panel confirmed the decision of the Haydock stewards to find him guilty of breaching the whip guidelines.
Carberry was found to have used his whip with excessive force and frequency on Two For One, who was to eventually unseat his jockey in a three-mile novice chase.
His suspension was increased to seven days from today to November 20th and his deposit money was forfeited. Carberry said afterwards: "I didn't think I should have been done for frequency. I'll just have to not ride lazy horses in future."
Fastest Star, the former Dermot Weld flyer, excelled by winning the first leg of the Hong Kong sprinting crown, the £150,000 Happy Valley Trophy, on Wednesday night. Fastest Star, who raced as High Target in Ireland, got up on the line under Alan Munro to deny Kowloon Pride in the big Happy Valley sprint.The import had finished fourth in the National Panasonic Cup at Sha Tin five days earlier, and now has even bigger targets in mind. The Alex Wong charge may head now for the Group Two Hong Kong International Vase (7f) at Sha Tin on December 14th.
