Frankie Dettori, the most successful Royal Ascot jockey currently riding with 56 winners at the meeting, suffered an injury scare only a week before opening day when he was thrown from a horse in the parade ring at Yarmouth on Tuesday.
Dettori had just been legged up on the unraced filly Tivoli before the first race when she appeared to be startled and threw him to the ground. He looked to be holding his left shoulder as he was attended to by medical staff, and though he walked back to the weighing room unaided, the jockey was stood down for the rest of the afternoon.
Dettori left the course soon after the accident and was reported to have said he was feeling sore and expected to take at least one day off to recover. He has two booked rides at Kempton Park on Wednesday evening, and four more on the valuable card at Newbury on Thursday afternoon.
“He’s in good form but his shoulder is a bit sore,” said Ray Cochrane, Dettori’s agent. “It was a nasty tumble. He’s got some ice on the shoulder already to get the soreness out of it and he’s going to see the physio tonight then play it by ear in the morning. It’s going to be very sore, he said that it was a massive wrench he got, but he’s in good form.
“He says there’s nothing broken and no fractures. You know straight away when you’ve done a collarbone or a shoulder. It’s going to be stiff in the morning but that’s a lot better than a break. We’ll see what the physio says but the next few days are very busy for him. At the minute, he’s said nothing to me at all [about taking time off], he’s got a busy work-riding day tomorrow so he’s just playing it by ear.”
Order Of St George, meanwhile, one of four Aidan O’Brien-trained runners at a short price for a Group One at Royal Ascot, could start at odds-on to win the Gold Cup for the second year running after Vazirabad, the ante-post second-favourite, was ruled out on Tuesday after suffering an injury.
Alain de Royer-Dupré, Vazirabad’s trainer, said that the five-year-old, a dual winner of the Group One Prix Royal-Oak and the Group Two Dubai Gold Cup, suffered a bruised leg in his prep race for Ascot in the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier last month and that has hindered his preparation.
“During his last race he was hit by another horse behind and hurt his leg,” De Royer-Dupré said. “His career is not finished but Ascot and the Gold Cup will come too soon. We will see how he recovers, but the plan could now be the Goodwood Cup [on 1 August].”
Order Of St George was the 10-11 favourite when he took last year’s Gold Cup by three lengths from Mizzou, and he is now the same price with most to complete the double. Simple Verse, the 2015 St Leger winner, is next in the betting at 12-1, and it is 14-1 that Big Orange, the winner of the Goodwood Cup in 2015 and 2016, will finally add a Group One success to his record.
Among O’Brien’s major candidates for next week’s meeting, only Caravaggio, an 11-10 chance for Friday’s Commonwealth Cup, is now widely available at odds-against. Churchill and Winter, who completed doubles for the trainer in the English and Irish Guineas last month, are respectively top-priced at 8-11 and 4-6 for the St James’s Palace Stakes and the Coronation Stakes.
Greg Wood’s tips for Wednesday
Haydock Park
2.00 Ottonian 2.30 Dance Diva 3.00 Sidewinder (nb) 3.30 Mutarabby 4.00 Vaulted 4.30 Mutadaffeq 5.00 UAE King
Worcester
2.20 Cry Fury 2.50 Beneficial Joe 3.20 Captiva Island 3.50 Lake Chapala 4.20 Burrows Lane 4.50 Saffron Wells 5.20 Baby Sherlock 5.50 Kayflin
Yarmouth
2.10 One Minute 2.40 Zubaidah 3.10 Paddy A (nap) 3.40 Misu Moneypenny 4.10 Hackney Road 4.40 King Oswald 5.10 Lunar Deity
Kempton Park
6.10 Believe It 6.40 Sparkalot 7.10 Stylish Dancer 7.40 Orithia 8.10 Ventura Blues 8.40 Twin Point 9.10 Author’s Dream
Hamilton Park
5.55 Concur 6.25 Tough Remedy 6.55 Schmooze 7.25 Henley 7.55 Brother McGonagall 8.25 Angel Palanas 8.55 Cheeni
