Frankie Dettori, who is to ride the 2,000 Guineas winner Galileo Gold in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, endured an injury scare on Tuesday when his mount in a maiden race at Leicester broke loose by scrambling underneath the starting stalls.
Dettori was aboard Azam, a two-year-old trained by John Gosden, when the colt broke out through the front of the gates. The jockey was able to walk away from the incident, albeit tenderly, and was stood down from his remaining ride on the card. As a result, he will need to pass a doctor’s examination in order to take his two booked rides at Nottingham on Wednesday afternoon.
Dettori has fancied rides in three of the Group One races on Qipco Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday, when in addition to Galileo Gold, he is also due to partner Shalaa, the top-rated juvenile last season, in the British Champions Sprint and Journey in the Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, a race in which she finished runner-up 12 months ago.
It is three years since Dettori sustained a season-ending injury in a fall before the start of a race at Nottingham, just days before he was due to ride Treve, the second-favourite and winner, in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Jimmy Stevenson, Leicester’s clerk of the course, said Dettori had “some soft tissue injuries, it’s nothing major”, while Peter Burrell, the rider’s business manager, said on Tuesday evening Dettori should be fit to ride on Wednesday.
“He’s bruised and sore, that’s all,” Burrell said. “He’s had a very long week, with a heavy month to come, but he’s fine and will be riding at Nottingham. There are no concerns [about his rides on Champions Day].”
Chris Stickels, the clerk of the course at Ascot, will make a final decision on Wednesday morning on the course to be used for the Champion Stakes, the feature event on the card and the second-richest Flat race in the British calendar with a prize fund of £1.3m.
Ascot announced this year it was considering switching the Champion Stakes to be run on a track inside the standard mile-and-a-quarter course, in an attempt to ensure the best possible ground for the race. The meeting has been run on good-to-soft ground or worse in each of the last four seasons, and was staged on heavy ground two years ago.
With the inner circuit, which has not been watered during the summer months, described as good-to-firm, firm in places, the likelihood is the Champion Stakes will be staged on its familiar circuit, which good, good-to-soft in places.
“If it’s a dry night, and there is minimal rain forecast, we will switch to the outer track,” Stickels said on Tuesday evening. “That’s my feeling at the minute. We want to make a decision in plenty of time so that people know what they’re going to be declaring on.”
Two of Ireland’s leading bookmakers said on Tuesday they had been taken by surprise by a sudden rush of money for Willie Mullins in the betting for Ireland’s trainers’ championship.
Mullins recently lost about 60 horses from his string when Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud operation redistributed horses to other Irish yards following a dispute over training fees. He was on offer at 8-15 with Boylesports on Tuesday morning but was then backed through 1-3 and 2-7 to 1-5 before the firm suspended the market, while Paddy Power cut Mullins’s odds to 1-4.
“It was sustained backing, four-figure bets that kept coming in,” Liam Glynn, of Boylesports, said, while Paul Binfield, of Paddy Power, said the firm was “bamboozled” by the sudden gamble, as no news had emerged from either the Mullins stable or that of Gordon Elliott, his closest rival in the betting, to explain it.
