REDEMPTION and Frankie Dettori raced hand in hand at Royal Ascot yesterday. Downcast after Kieren Fallon edged him out in the opening race, Dettori responded to the intrusion on his private domain by sweeping through to claim the Queen Anne Stakes aboard Refuse To Bend. In the process he brought redemption to a colt who had regressed to anonymity since his 2,000 Guineas victory 14 months ago.
“Ascot never lets me down,” Dettori said in the winner’s enclosure. Fallon may have bragging rights at Epsom, but the Italian was never going to lie down at the scene of his most famous endeavours. This was no magnificent seven but it was almost as startling to see Refuse To Bend recapture his former brilliance.
A draw tight up against the stands’ rail restricted Dettori’s options to stalking the early pace. Its sedate nature ensured that the field did not fracture deep into the contest. Dettori was stuck; he must have mused that parting the Red Sea would have seemed less formidable than finding an opening in the dense mass up ahead of him.
Sheikh Mohammed, Godolphin’s proprietor, talked afterwards of the patience required to bring the horse back to his best. Dettori exercised similar patience in a predicament that suddenly transformed approaching the final furlong. He angled out, the little colt accelerated past Soviet Song, and Dettori was soon preparing himself for a trademark flying dismount.
That final surge was why the sheikh had paid a king’s ransom for Refuse To Bend nine months ago. What followed was as perplexing as it was disappointing; Refuse To Bend flunked his next two starts after impressing his taskmasters beforehand. “We couldn’t work out why he ran so badly,” Dettori said. “We were left scratching our heads.”
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The only one left scratching his head here was James Fanshawe, who has done equally well to rekindle Soviet Song’s enthusiasm. “I thought we had it,” he said, “but Frankie has done us on the line.” Of equal merit was the performance of Salselon, who closed late and fast into third. This former Italian-trained horse has immense potential, but the suspicion is that his talent outweighs his heart.
This was Godolphin’s sixth Queen Anne Stakes triumph and, according to Simon Crisford, the racing manager, “Refuse To Bend stacks up with the best of them.” Dettori later picked up a one-day ban for hitting Refuse To Bend too frequently inside the final furlong.
Dettori’s earlier reverse, on Council Member in the Coventry Stakes, owed much to Fallon’s intuitive skills aboard Iceman. The champion jockey nursed this inexperienced colt through a steep learning curve in mid-race to produce him with immaculate timing late on. There was never a doubt that his withering late run would usurp Dettori’s best efforts.
“How he finds those gaps without checking a horse’s stride, I don’t know,” John Gosden, the winning trainer, said afterwards. “I had a two-year-old champion two years ago in Oasis Dream, but this is a different horse. He wants seven furlongs now, so we’ll put him away for the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster.”
A turbulent year for John Egan took a turn for the better when the jockey posted his first royal victory on Double Obsession in the Ascot Stakes. The winner is trained by Mark Johnston, who leads allcomers at this venue over the past five years but entered the fixture unsure of the health of his string. Double Obsession provided the perfect tonic.