Evergreen Dettori Back in Maroon

[Wandering Eyes]

Arcadia, CA—Like the rings radiating through the cross-section of a tree, each new Breeders’ Cup takes Frankie Dettori another year away from the youthful sap that nourished his breakthrough success, back in 1994, on Barathea. But the effervescence has never dried, nor has the growth abated. And that continuity is manifest, not only in the seasoned mastery that has brought him 19 Group 1 wins this year, but also in the silks he will be wearing here on Saturday.

For Fanny Logan (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), his mount in the Filly and Mare Turf, carries the same colours as did Barathea in the Mile at Churchill Downs 25 years ago. In those days, the maroon-and-white of Sheikh Mohammed were ubiquitous. But then they were immersed by the royal blue tide of their owner’s new venture, Godolphin, until a couple of years ago, when he re-registered them for a small string running in the name of his daughter, Sheikha Al Jalila.

But that is not the only way in which Fanny Logan will be bringing things full circle. For her trainer, John Gosden, this represents a far more literal homecoming.

Gosden made his name here at Santa Anita through the 1980s, before returning to his native land to become the outstanding trainer of his generation. Clarehaven is nowadays so powerful a stable that it came as a shock to discover that Gosden had only mustered this one filly for the meeting.

Dettori, naturally, has more extensive opportunities over the two days, notably Royal Ascot winner A’Ali (Ire) (Society Rock {Ire}) in the Turf Juvenile Sprint. There would be a sentimental resonance in success for that colt, too, as he is trained by Simon Crisford—who, like Dettori, was a key player for Godolphin for many years. But it is Fanny Logan who could put a seal on a season of extraordinary achievement for the new/old partnership of Dettori and Gosden.

“The best year of my career, for sure,” Dettori said. “Obviously I’m still devastated that Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) got beat [in the Arc] but the horses Clarehaven has delivered this year, it’s just crazy to have so many in the same stable at the same time. Yes, 1996 was brilliant; and then when I had Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) I thought I’d never match this one again; then Enable comes along; and this year has been even better. The best I’d had before was 16 [Group 1s], so to have 19 is mindboggling really. All the thanks go to John, they’ve kept their form all season and never run a bad race even when they’ve been beaten.”

Fanny Logan herself, viewed as an Oaks filly in the spring, has been a revelation since being dropped in trip and fitted with a hood. She was so full of herself on her reconnaissance yesterday that she briefly discarded Dettori when schooled in the paddock.

“She’s done nothing but improve since she had the hood,” he said. “The race looks tough, but she deserves to take her chance and I don’t really know what to expect from her any more. Every time I ride her, she keeps improving, so who knows?”

Dettori described himself as “ultra-excited” that Enable will be staying in training yet again, and feels grateful on behalf of the whole sport that her owner—like the owner of Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire})—has given a champion the chance to grow in public affection.

But while it is the adrenaline of the big days that sustains Dettori, at 48, he feels that his bond with Gosden is sooner rooted in their day-to-day dealings.

“We’ve got this chemistry,” he said. “I suppose it’s a bit like Swinburn and Stoute, or Cecil and Cauthen. John seems to train horses that suit my riding, and I guess my riding suits his training. We’ve been fortunate to have these great horses but I do just feel very comfortable riding for him.”

Gosden duly reciprocated. “I’ve always said Frankie’s brilliant in the mornings,” he said. “He’s a very, very good judge of a horse. There have been some jockeys, over the years, who were brilliant in the afternoon but completely hopeless in the morning and could lead you up all kind of paths. But I find a lot of his advice invaluable, obviously from races but also from work.”

It is axiomatic that Dettori thrives on confidence, which somewhat self-fulfilling state of affairs has underpinned this whole Indian summer in his career.

“He’s happy, which is very important,” Gosden said. “He likes being very involved in a stable, likes to come in every day and tell me how to train them. I have to keep him in his place but, look, he’s fulfilled. Everything came so fast when he was young, he didn’t stop to appreciate it. Everybody’s like that when they’re young, of course, but he had some ups and downs, he had this wonderful career and then went a little quiet, he was heading into something of a twilight zone when he came back with us. We’re very lucky to have the owners to send us all these wonderful horses, but he’s certainly riding them beautifully.

“Let’s face it, he’s not a man you’ll find on a wet afternoon at Brighton, he very much keeps himself for the bigger meetings. But he was champion jockey three times, and at his age doesn’t want to flog up and down the country wearing himself out. He’s a wonderful Italian diva, still very much at the zenith of his career, and he keeps himself very fit and disciplined.

“He’s thoroughly enjoying it, and I think as long as he’s enjoying it, he’ll continue to ride. I remember Shoemaker riding here quite beautifully in his early fifties. Of course, he didn’t have weight to worry about—he was 96 lbs soaking wet—whereas Frankie has to be very careful. But overall I think he’s in a good place, mentally and physically. Long may it last.”

Gosden was standing yards from the barn where he started out with three horses in 1978, and remembers that its principal tenant Willard Proctor took six weeks before he was prepared to address a syllable to this young English interloper. But while Gosden’s own stature has been dramatically elevated since those days, Santa Anita itself has notoriously fallen on rather harder times.

Reflecting on its recent traumas, Gosden said, “There’s not the depth of horses here that there once was. When I was here, in the ’80s, it was brim full of the top stables, from the East Coast as well. There were high quality horses filling a racing programme five days racing a week. Without that now, there’s a need to get people to run, to keep the show on the road. And they’re running older horses that have been in the claiming ranks a long time, over sloppy tracks in a wet winter, and the top track man, we had a lot of faith in, was not here anymore. And I think they just got themselves into a perfect storm.”

It is now over 30 years since he left, and Gosden spoke nostalgically of the way things were then.

“I was very lucky to see an era when Cordero came here every winter and could hardly get in the jocks’ room,” he said. “It was just the most amazing group of riders: Shoemaker, Pincay, Delahoussaye, McCarron, Stevens. The Phipps family had a stable here. It was just a different era.  Ownership has probably changed, too. The Hollywood crowd loved their horses back then, but now the younger ones are more into riding them on the ranches.

“It’s a different world and, to that extent, I’m not going to be offering any instant remedies. But I think it’s absolutely right they kept the Breeders’ Cup here. If you think back over all the wonderful races we’ve seen in this part of the world, without incident, going all the way back to when the whole thing started, at Hollywood Park, hopefully last winter will prove to have been a unique problem and we’ll have a weekend of good, clean racing, with no problems.”

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