20 JUNE 2019, Royal Ascot third day, UK ~ Frankie Dettori guided Stradivarius to a second successive Gold Cup victory at Royal Ascot as the superstar jockey won the first four races on Ladies’ Day.
In the first race of the day, Frankie Dettori notched his 63rd success overall at the Royal Meeting and third of the week by winning on A’ali after tracking the pace in the early stages of the five-furlong contest and running on strongly to score by a neck.
A’Ali is owned by Shaikh Duaij Al Khalifa of Bahrain, a close friend of Godolphin’s owner Sheikh Mohammed. The two-year-old son of Society Rock was his first runner at Royal Ascot.
Dettori then delivered his second win of the day with Sangarius in the Hampton Court Stakes as he led Sir Michael Stoute’s charge home by two and a quarter lengths from 7-2 favorite Fox Chairman.
The 48-year-old completed his hat-trick on Gosden’s 4-1-priced Star Catcher in the Ribblesdale Stakes, beating 7-4 favorite Fleeting by a length and a half, with Sparkle Roll in third.
“Having the first three winners on Gold Cup and Ladies’ Day, it can’t get any better than this,” said Dettori, who won all seven races on the card at Ascot in September 1996.
After his fourth win of the day in the Gold Cup, making his record 66 Royal Ascot winners, Dettori said: “It’s Ascot, you’ve got to have 10 plans for a race and hope you pick the right one. I had half a split second {with Stradivarious} and I took it. He’s a very brave horse – he’s very big, so he made himself plenty of room, and boy, didn’t he half quicken for a big horse. It was a great performance. I saw daylight, which in these races is very unusual, and I was able to push him out to the line and enjoy the moment.”
Stradivarius (John Gosden and Frankie Dettori) became the 10th horse to win the Ascot Gold Cup two or more years in succession since 1946 (Yeats four years in a row 2006-2009, and Sagaro three times between 1975 and 1977).
Ascot has a famously rich history, but over the centuries few characters surely can have outshone Dettori at this place. It’s his favorite track, and he’s its favorite jockey. He positively thrives on the top class sport and on the sense of occasion even at the ‘non-Royal’ fixtures.
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