Frankie Dettori’s loss was Hollie Doyle’s gain on Thursday, when the Italian went to York to ride four losers and missed the winning mount aboard Dame Malliot in the Princess Of Wales, the big race on day one of Newmarket’s July meeting. Doyle stepped into the breach and, thanks to some improvised tactics, landed the biggest success of her career to date.
Dettori may have imagined he wasn’t missing much, as Dame Malliot was having her first run of the year and taking on bigger names such as Enbihaar, Alounak and last year’s winner, Communique. The filly was allowed to start at 8-1 but put her big stride to devastating effect and came home clear, just as she had done in a Listed race here last summer on the only previous occasion that Doyle rode her.
“It’s an amazing feeling to get that Group winner under my belt, I’ve been waiting for a while,” Doyle said. The 23-year-old earned her fee with a brave mid-race decision to let her mount stride to the front after Dame Malliot had failed to relax under restraint.
“She’s got a massive stride, she’s strengthened up even more than last year,” the jockey reported. “It wasn’t benefiting her, me pulling her round, and she just wouldn’t settle. So I had a big decision to make, to let her go on, and once she got there she relaxed really well. I kept her away from the others to enable myself to dictate on my own terms.
“They got racing quite soon, apart from me, but because I wasn’t near them, I managed to hold on to her for a bit longer.”
Communique and Desert Encounter made stern challenges in the final quarter-mile but Dame Malliot was pulling clear by the line. Enbihaar’s chance was compromised by steady rain but she kept on into fourth.
Doyle reckons Dame Malliot is good enough to pick up a Group One prize somewhere. “She’s twice the filly she was last year,” the jockey said, adding with a rueful smile: “I know she’s Frankie’s ride but whenever he can’t ride her, I hope I can.”
There must be every hope of that, as the winning trainer, Ed Vaughan, praised Doyle, saying: “I like how she rides, she’s very tidy, she’s got good hands, rides with a good length of rein.” Doyle is currently fifth in the race to be champion jockey, one winner behind William Buick, who rode a treble here.
Meanwhile at York, there was a turn-up in the Dante Stakes, with the odds-on favourite, Highest Ground, being outstayed by Thunderous. That completed a big-race double at the venue for the trainer Mark Johnston, who also landed the Musidora with Rose Of Kildare.
Friday’s races on ITV4
1.50 Newmarket Jack Mitchell and Lucky Louie have been a productive partnership over the years and they went close again last month, despite the chestnut stumbling out of the stalls and losing vital ground. Soft ground gives them a bit more time to work their way into this race and stall one puts them on the best of the ground, though one can never be sure where jockeys will actually race.
2.05 Market Rasen With four winners from her seven runners since jump racing returned, Emma Lavelle is absolutely flying along and her Highly Prized has taken over at the top of the betting here from Paul Nicholls’s Red Force One. The Betfair Hurdle was a step too far for Highly Prized but he was in the argument until being badly hampered at the last. Dropped a couple of pounds, he should be a force in this less challenging heat, though he could have done without 10mm of rain on Thursday.
2.25 Newmarket Dandalla sets a high standard in view of her Royal Ascot romp but 7-4 is pretty tempting about Time Scale, whose easy Listed win over on the Rowley Mile a fortnight ago makes her a strong contender. On one view of the form, there is little between them.
2.40 Market Rasen This is really competitive but punters may rue letting the youngest runner, Really Super, go off at 22-1. She showed what she could do over fences with a front-running effort at Kempton in November that had her rivals in trouble some way out and she is definitely handicapped to win more races. With the cheekpieces back on and (mostly) good ground to help, she deserves plenty of respect, especially after a useful comeback effort on the Flat last month.
3.00 Newmarket Having shown promise last year, including on soft ground, the robustly built grey Holy Kingdom is two from two this year, with a little help from the stewards. He is one to stick with, though the market support for Sam Cooke is interesting as that one returns from a 14-month absence caused by breaking a bone on the gallops.
3.35 Newmarket A few of these ran with credit in the Golden Gates at Royal Ascot but Lucander is arguably even more interesting. Ralph Beckett’s charge doesn’t do anything quickly but he has got there in the end three times out of six, claiming the notable scalp of Convict at York in October. He’ll be sharper for his reappearance third at Haydock, though it was a bit cheeky of the handicapper to raise him 5lb for that.
Market Rasen
12.00 Bear Valley 12.30 Fresh New Dawn 1.00 The Sweeney 1.30 Honourable Gent 2.05 Highly Prized 2.40 Really Super 3.15 Mantovani 3.50 Mistercobar 4.20 She's Our Darby
Newmarket
12.10 Eastern Sheriff 12.45 East Street Revue 1.15 Youth Spirit 1.50 Lucky Louie 2.25 Time Scale 3.00 Holy Kingdom (nb) 3.35 Lucander (nap) 4.10 Nazeef
Musselburgh
1.40 Grantley 2.15 Kensington Art 2.50 Yorkshire Pirlo 3.25 Boudica Bay 4.00 Jungle Inthebungle 4.35 Temper Trap 5.05 Easy Desire 5.40 Flood Defence
Bath
4.30 Tattoo 5.00 Diligent Lady 5.35 Glamorous Force 6.05 Bhangra 6.35 Awsaaf 7.05 Kingston Kurrajong 7.35 Janus 8.05 Homing Star
4.10 Newmarket Soft ground looks like bad news for the less fancied types in this Falmouth, Billesdon Brook, Agincourt and Under The Stars, mostly because of stamina concerns in the latter’s case. One Master likes some cut and Terrebellum should be fine on it but it is interesting to read John Gosden saying that Nazeef should not mind it either. This is her first Group One and she takes on proven rivals but odds of 5-1 look big to me, considering the class she showed at Kempton last month and again when landing the Duke Of Cambridge at Royal Ascot. Her dam achieved her best form with some cut in the ground and it is worth taking a chance that Nazeef, the one really progressive runner in the field, can do the same.
