How will Frankie Dettori look back on five decades of Ebor Festivals?
Look away now if you’ve already had your fill of a last dance that is giving Sir Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour a good run for its money. Frankie’s Final Fling rolls into York for its last ever Ebor Festival on Wednesday and, with respect to Only Royale, So Factual, Lochangel, Sulamani, Authorized and Blue Bunting, the File’s 5 Favourite Frankie G1 moments on the Knavesmire are as follows:
1993: Lochsong’s Nunthorpe
Can it really be 30 years since the runaway train called Lochsong gave Frankie a first York G1 winner?
We can draw a veil over the fact that Ian Balding’s mare bombed out at 8-13 the following year after going down to the start like her arse was on fire and focus firmly on the day when she flashed her blazing speed to put Piggott (College Chapel), Swinburn (Elbio) and Eddery (Lyric Fantasy) in deep trouble by halfway.
There was something magical about the way Dettori used to crouch quietly behind this brilliant mare’s powerful neck as she put good horses through the mincer. And the fact that Dettori is still excelling long after his old foes Lester, Walter and Pat are no longer around tells a striking tale of his career longevity.
1996: Halling’s second International
His first win came in a Ripon handicap off 75 for John Gosden in August 1994 and his twelfth and last came for Saeed Bin Suroor in Europe’s premier ten-furlong contest exactly two years later.
A Cambridgeshire, two Eclipses and the previous year’s International were among the major wins sandwiched in between and Halling was undoubtedly one of the pioneers of the Godolphin project.
Swinburn was aboard for Halling’s runaway 1995 International success. Bahri and Annus Mirabilis were left trailing that day, while First Island and Bijou D’Inde were supporting players as the hugely popular chestnut powered clear under Dettori in ’96.
1997: Singspiel’s International
How does a horse who has snared the Japan Cup, Dubai World Cup and Coronation Cup on three of his last four starts jump at 4-1 for a 4-runner race?
Singspiel faced a star filly in Bosra Sham and two Derby winners in Benny The Dip and Desert King on what was to be his final start but beat them emphatically to prompt raucous scenes in the old York winner’s enclosure.
A youthful-looking Michael, still a year from becoming Sir Stoute, ensured the groom was in the money shot. An elated Sheikh Mohammed strode proudly beside a star who went on to sire another World Cup winner in Moon Ballad. And a beaming Frankie tossed his whip into the crowd as he milked every second.
2001: Sakhee’s International
Presvis and Sakhee’s Secret apart, it would be hard to rate Sakhee as a brilliant sire. But for three months in the second half of his four-year-old campaign he was a sensational racehorse.
Simon Holt bellowed “Sakhee is superb” as the Godolphin colt destroyed a world-class Arc field in the Longchamp mud. Tom Durkin’s fabled “Tiznow wins it for America” payoff line in the post 9/11 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Belmont was elevated by the fact that Sakhee gave his all to run him to a nose.
But a stunning success at York in August laid the foundation for those foreign raids. Medicean and Grandera had dominated the Eclipse but Holt summed it up neatly with “Sakhee is going to demolish them” as Dettori punched him seven lengths clear.
2019: Enable’s second Yorkshire Oaks
Enable was less than four weeks on from a titanic scrap with Crystal Ocean in the King George, while Magical was well rested after keeping the Gosden filly honest up the Sandown hill in the Eclipse.
But punters had no doubt that the outcome would be the same and, sent off at 1-4, Enable notched her tenth G1 success by bounding clear of a rival who went on to land the Irish and British versions of the Champion Stakes a few weeks later.
If push came to shove, I suspect Dettori would always rank Dubai Millennium as the greatest horse he has ever ridden. But change the metric to the one who left the most lasting emotional impact and you might just have a different conversation.
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