A month to the day after the fall and injury which ruled him out of Royal Ascot, Frankie Dettori will return to action at his local track on Thursday, on the first afternoon of Newmarket’s three-day July Festival meeting. Dettori has opted to take only two rides in the Group 2 feature events: the July Stakes for juveniles, and the 12-furlong Princess Of Wales’s Stakes.
Dettori was injured a week before the start of Royal Ascot, when he was unseated from a two-year-old at Yarmouth shortly after being legged into the saddle. Initially it was hoped he would be fit for the Royal meeting and he partnered Rivet in the French Derby five days later but he was ruled out of Ascot on the opening day having been diagnosed with a shoulder injury.
“It’s been a long time, I’ve been out for a whole month,” Dettori said on Wednesday. “I could have had five or six rides on Thursday but I thought it was sensible to ease myself back into things with just a couple.
“I was aboard Denaar when he won his first two races, then I think he let the Royal Ascot atmosphere get to him [when 11th] in the Coventry Stakes. The other is Wings Of Desire [4-1 for the Princess of Wales’s Stakes], who I finished fourth on in last year’s Epsom Derby. He’s so laid back that we have decided to try him in sheepskin cheekpieces, they might just help him concentrate.”
Denaar, a 14-1 chance for the July Stakes, appears unlikely to give Dettori a winner on his return. He finished nearly six lengths behind the Coventry Stakes winner Rajasinghe, who also lines up against him on Thursday. Richard Spencer’s juvenile, who gave the trainer his first winner at the Royal meeting in just his second season with a licence, carries a 3lb penalty for that success but is still certain to start favourite on Thursday afternoon at around 9-4.
For Spencer, who trains for Rajasinghe’s owner, Phil Cunningham, at Albert House Stables on Newmarket’s Moulton Road, the race on Thursday will be another big step in a career that is less than 18 months old. Rajasinghe was just one of several juveniles at double-figure odds in the Coventry field but could now become one of the best of his generation.
“It was fairytale stuff [at Ascot], there’s a bit more pressure on tomorrow with him being favourite but hopefully he’ll be able to run well,” Spencer said.
“We went there thinking that he had a very good chance and that he’d taken a step forward from [his debut at] Newcastle. He’d been running on the all-weather and he’d only had one piece of work on grass, which was just to get him onto it before we went to Ascot.
“It’s hard when you’ve only got nine two-year-olds, and we hadn’t had a two-year-old runner until he ran at Newcastle. In a bigger yard, you can run a few and you get a bit of a line on where you stand, but we were still confident and it’s nice that he fulfilled what we thought he would.”
A close finish at Ascot has prompted some to question the value of the form. Spencer points out Rajasinghe was hampered early on and that his colt is still progressing. “Some people have put the race down a little bit, because it was a close finish and maybe also because we’re a smaller yard, but hopefully we can put that to bed tomorrow,” he said. “He got hampered at the start, which didn’t help him, but the experience is going to stand him in good stead to take another step forward.”
Greg Wood’s Thursday tips
Carlisle
1.30 Kynren 2.00 Savannah Moon 2.35 Poetic Steps 3.10 Olivia Fallow 3.45 Dealer’s Choice 4.20 Questo 4.50 Newt
Doncaster
1.40 Stoneham 2.10 James Garfield 2.45 King Of Paris 3.20 Panova 3.55 Flash City 4.25 Beach Break 4.55 Acadian Angel
Epsom Downs
6.05 Fair Power 6.40 Carouse 7.15 Native Prospect 7.45 Tapis Libre 8.20 Berrahri 8.50 Highland Acclaim
Newbury
5.20 Wordismybond 5.55 Luis Fernandez 6.30 Autumn Leaves 7.05 Traveller 7.35 Love Conquers 8.05 Chocolate Box 8.40 Glory Of Paris
Newmarket
1.50 Raheen House 2.25 Rajasinghe 3.00 Goodwood Crusader (nap) 3.35 Frontiersman (nb) 4.05 Maybride 4.35 Shamshon 5.05 Ronald R
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