“It’s an easy track to ride and the best horse wins, usually.” That was Andrea Atzeni’s assessment after he had won the Racing Post Trophy for the third time in a row and, having also won the last two St Legers here, he is bound to have fond thoughts of Doncaster – but we may comfortably assume they are not shared by his fellow Italian, Frankie Dettori.
Riding Foundation, the odds-on favourite for the Racing Post Trophy, Dettori had the sort of experience that turns a jockey’s hair white. With just six other runners in the race, he may have imagined that getting a clear run would be a straightforward matter but Foundation could not have met with more setbacks had he been by Charlie Chaplin out of a mare by Buster Keaton.
It had all started so promisingly. Foundation, owned by a syndicate including Sir Alex Ferguson, travelled so well from an early stage as to dispel pre-race fears of the ground being too soft. At the halfway point of this mile-long race, he was next to Marcel, the eventual winner, and possibly a neck in front.
But the difference from that point was that Atzeni allowed his mount to edge away from the stands towards the centre of the track, aiming around the four in front. Dettori took the ground-saving option of ploughing straight ahead but he already knew there could be trouble ahead at the two-furlong marker, where he shot a jealous glance left in time to see Marcel quicken alongside the leaders.
It was not unreasonable for Dettori to track Deauville, the second-favourite, on the assumption that that rival would carry him into the heat of the final argument. But Deauville plugged on at one pace and so, unhappily for Dettori, did Port Douglas on his right and Tony Curtis on his left.
Dettori’s desperate attempts to find a gap amongst them took on a slapstick quality. There was no escape until deep inside the final furlong, by which time Marcel had gone perhaps seven lengths clear, with the eventual second, Johannes Vermeer, in dour pursuit. His cause hopeless, Dettori showed little urgency on Foundation from there but still closed the gap to four lengths by the line.
It was a very sour outcome in view of the hopes held for this previously unbeaten two-year-old and Harry Herbert, who manages the owning Highclere syndicate, was uncharacteristically short of speech in front of a TV camera. “That is hard to take,” he managed eventually. At least he did not have to talk up Ferguson’s spirits, the former Manchester United manager having been a late withdrawal from the party.
John Gosden, Foundation’s trainer, the sorry turn of events in perspective, doubtless helped by having been presented with his trophy as champion trainer just half an hour earlier. “The horse is happy as anything,” he reported. “Frankie said they all died in front of him; not one dropped back, no gap appeared, he couldn’t go anywhere. C’est la vie, that’s life, when you race against the rail here, the risk is always someone getting boxed in.”
While Dettori was an instant villain on social media, many observers were delighted for Marcel’s trainer, Peter Chapple-Hyam, achieving his first Group One success for eight years. He and Dettori were on the same team back in 2006, when he won this contest with the subsequent Derby hero Authorized.
“He’d always worked like a good horse but always been weak,” Chapple-Hyam said. “I don’t have many horses but every now and again, you know one’s good. He’s a big horse and he’s been a shell of a horse and he’s just grown into himself.”
Foundation remains at the head of the betting on next year’s Derby at the increased odds of 16-1 but the Classic which Gosden mentioned as a possible target was the French Guineas. Marcel may also be aimed across the Channel at next year’s French Derby.
