Advertisement

Royal Ascot 2019: Frankie Dettori finds rare joy in rain with victory in Prince Of Wales’s Stakes on Crystal Ocean

Frankie Dettori has made it no secret that he hates riding in the rain, but after winning on two outsiders on a stormy day at Royal Ascot, he may reconsider his stance on the weather.

After failing to ride a winner on the first day, Dettori secured his 61st Royal Ascot win in the first race of the day on 18-1 Raffle Prize, beating US challenger Kimari in the Queen Mary Stakes before winning the feature race of the day, the Price of Wales’s Stakes on 3-1 Crystal Ocean in the heavy rain.

Aidan O’Brein-trained Magical was the heavy 13-8 favourite to deliver in the feature event, but its impressive form coming into the race was no match for Crystal Ocean and Dettori, who produced a masterful ride by committing early to move to the centre of the track as Magical drifted away.

The feature race at Royal Ascot usually takes place at 4:20 but was brought forward to 3:35 to accommodate Japanese viewers tuning in to watch Deirdre, who has won well in Asia and Dubai but failed to impress at Ascot.

The earlier start time plunged the race into the heaviest rain of the day, but Dettori saw the bright side of things after delivering an 80th Royal Ascot win for trainer Sir Michael Stoute.

“The rain's on top of the ground, but it's not very pleasant out there. I stayed wide for the fresh ground,” Dettori shouted from Crystal Ocean when asked about racing in the adverse weather. "He stayed well. I kicked on the final turn, he responded well and kept on going. I got very little kickback as I was in the first two.

"I was worried about the ground, as his best form is on firm, but he's very tough. This horse is a heavyweight of the sport. He never runs a bad race."

Stoute, who extended his record as the all-time leading trainer at the Royal meeting, said: "It was great teamwork. Several people ride him work, including Ted Durcan.

The second day of Royal Ascot was hit by heavy rain (Getty)
The second day of Royal Ascot was hit by heavy rain (Getty)

"He's been very consistent. If you look at his record, it's quite amazing. It's great for the (Southcourt) stud to have a Group One horse.

"I thought he ran very well in the Champion Stakes last year. He ran better than I thought.

"He may be better at a mile and a half, but he's certainly a pretty good horse at a mile and a quarter and he's proved that today."

Frankie Dettori found rare joy in the rain (Getty)
Frankie Dettori found rare joy in the rain (Getty)

Dettori was not alone in celebrating his first success of the week. Oisin Murphy put some difficult days away from the track behind him and won the Queen’s Vase on 6-1 Dashing Willoughby just days after being stood down from riding at Salisbury on Sunday for failing a breath test.

This season’s leading jockey could not hide his delight after securing his first win of the week on the Andrew Balding-trained three-year-old.

"He had to work to get to the front and controlled the race," he said. "I'm delighted to ride an Ascot winner for my first boss, Andrew Balding. He loves this ground.

"Everyone sat at home won't realise how important this is for the jockeys."

Dettori almost had a third winner on day two, but Rawdaa was just beaten by William Haggas-trained 9-1 Move Swiftly in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes. Despite the win, Haggas remained “angry” with himself for running Sea Of Class in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes in hugely unfavourable Soft conditions. "I'm so angry with myself for running her, and subjecting her to that awful weather and ground,” he said.

"As soon as I made the decision to run her, it then bucketed down with rain for an hour. It was a mistake to run her and occasionally we make them.”

The Queen was due to have her first runner in this year’s Royal Ascot, but Seniority was declared a non-runner due to the Soft going in the Royal Hunt Cup, which was won by 20-1 Afaak after a photo finish with Clon Coulis.

7-1 Southern Hills won the final race of the day to keep the number of favourites winning at one for the week, but the Windsor Castle Stakes was delayed after Show Me Show Me broke free from the stalls and refused to leave the track.