Frankie Dettori lights up rainswept Royal Ascot with second-day double

Frankie Dettori took over on day two at Royal Ascot, scoring a 75-1 double on his first two mounts of the day, his wins including the feature Prince of Wales’s Stakes aboard Crystal Ocean. Earlier, the Italian was hailed as “the greatest ever” by trainer Mark Johnston after the pair combined to win the Queen Mary with Raffle Prize, an 18-1 outsider.

Crystal Ocean is normally ridden by Ryan Moore but the Englishman had to ride the favourite, Magical, for Aidan O’Brien, this time and then had to watch his old ally hold off him off by a length and a quarter. “Amazing,” said Dettori to the ITV cameras as he returned to dismount. “I knew he stayed really well so I kicked him early and I didn’t hear anything coming. I thought, it’ll take a good one to pass me now.”

Related: Royal Ascot 2019: day two – live!

It was a tactical masterclass from Dettori on a horse that had never previously won a top-class race and was thought to lack the necessary speed for this distance. A second consecutive rainy afternoon helped turn the race into a test of toughness and Crystal Ocean has that in spades, for all that he was seen to be shying from umbrellas in the paddock beforehand.

“He’s a high class horse,” said the winning trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, “and I’m delighted to have won a Group One with him now. He’s an admirable racehorse.”

It was Dettori who was being lavished with praise after Raffle Prize’s narrow victory. Johnston said: “With all due respect to Lester, is Frankie not just the greatest ever? Fantastic! I could see we were tracking Wesley Ward’s horse and Frankie looking reasonably relaxed and confident. You couldn’t be in a better position.”

Dettori had no ride in the Queen’s Vase, allowing someone else a chance at finding the winner’s enclosure. Oisin Murphy took full advantage aboard Dashing Willoughby, a change of fortune for the rider, who failed a pre-race breath test for alcohol at Salisbury on Sunday.