Frankie Dettori seizes centre stage with treble at Royal Ascot

For the second year running, Frankie Dettori was the big news on the opening day of the Royal meeting. The difference this time around was that he could pose for the photographers as well. Twelve months ago Dettori was ruled out for the week a few hours before the first race, but on Tuesday he seized centre stage at his favourite course as only he can.

Calyx and Without Parole, Dettori’s partners for the Coventry Stakes and the St James’s Palace Stakes, were short on experience and stepping into Group-race company for the first time. Both rose to the occasion impressively for their rider and his day was complete when Monarchs Glen took the concluding Wolferton Stakes to conclude an 87-1 treble, from the jockey’s only three rides.

Dettori has now passed Willie Carson to take third place on the all-time list at the Royal meeting with 59 winners stretching back to Markofdistinction’s win in the Queen Anne Stakes in 1990. He is also now a strong favourite to finish the meeting as its leading jockey for the first time since 2004.

“Packing a suitcase to go to Sardinia,” Dettori said, when asked what he had been doing on the same afternoon a year ago. Like any long‑term riding career, Dettori’s has had its disappointments and setbacks, some of which – a six-month ban for failing a drugs test in 2012 being the most obvious – were self-inflicted. But he is approaching his 47th birthday in December promising to ride for another five years and showing every sign that he will stick to it.

With horses such as these to ride, why not? Calyx is the new favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas having seen off his field with a burst of speed a quarter of mile out that carried him clear and left rivals including Sergei Prokofiev, an early candidate for the best juvenile colt in Aidan O’Brien’s stable, racing for the minor honours.

Without Parole, meanwhile, has progressed from a maiden at Newcastle last December to become a Group One winner. Dettori said that he would have preferred to wait a little longer but felt his hand was forced as U S Navy Flag, last year’s Dewhurst Stakes winner, turned for home with a three-length lead. He still got to the leader with something to spare, though he picked up a seven-day ban, which will rule him out of the Eclipse Stakes, and a £4,300 fine from the stewards for using his whip above the permitted level from the two-pole.

“I had to move because Ryan Moore in front is always very dangerous,” Dettori said. “Then when I got to him, I looked up and thought, I’ve still got a furlong to go, I’m a sitting duck here. In fairness, Without Parole answered every call. He’s a lovely horse with a big future and that race made a man of him.”

All three of the winners on Tuesday were for John Gosden, the trainer who has given Dettori’s career a fresh lease of life in recent seasons.

It seems that the jockey’s contract with Qatar’s Al Shaqab Racing operation will not be renewed when it expires next month, having already been reduced significantly in value this season. “Some of the trainers said: ‘Look, if you’ve got better rides, just kick on,’” Dettori said, while Peter Burrell, his business agent, said only that the rider is still available to ride for Al Shaqab “if required”.

Since he will be riding against the Al Shaqab colours here this week, it seems that Dettori will not be required beyond next month but Gosden’s burgeoning Newmarket stable seems sure to fill any gap.

Aidan O’Brien left without a winner on Tuesday and in addition to Godolphin – who scored with Blue Point in the King’s Stand Stakes – he now faces serious opposition from Gosden, too.

Without Parole is the latest young star to emerge from the yard and his form here suggested that he would have gone close in the 2,000 Guineas had he not been forced to miss the race with a foot problem.

John Gunther, who bred and owns Without Parole, also bred Justify, the recent winner of America’s Triple Crown, but he insisted this was the best moment of his long racing life and this progressive horse is likely to continue improving for some months yet.

“This does mean more [than breeding Justify] and always will,” he said. “In all the years I’ve been coming to Royal Ascot, the dream was just to have a horse run. Then we start in a Group One and do it.”

After Dettori delivered Monarchs Glen with a well-timed challenge in the concluding race, attention turned to Wednesday’s card, when Dettori will ride Cracksman, the shortest-priced favourite of the week, in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. If he can deliver on Cracksman too, Dettori will have made this year’s Royal meeting his own with three days to spare.