Anapurna and Dettori team up to take English Oaks
Anapurna rallied in the final sixteenth to win Friday’s Group 1 English Oaks at Epsom Downs, giving legendary jockey Frankie Dettori a fifth win in the classic race for 3-year-old fillies.
Trained by John Gosden, Anapurna (8-1) closed on the inside through the uphill finish to edge 3-1 Pink Dogwood by a neck. The Gosden-trained Mehdaayih was the 11-4 favorite, but could only finish seventh after encountering trouble in the stretch.
Pink Dogwood, who was ridden by Ryan Moore, took the lead with about a quarter-mile remaining and finished 1 1/4 lengths in front of Fleeting (25-1). Pink Dogwood and Fleeting are trained by Aidan O’Brien.
Anapurna won for the third time in four starts in the $663,277 Epsom Oaks, run at 1 1/2 miles.
“I did not think I was going to get to Ryan, but my filly was very courageous,” Dettori said. “She was brilliant.”
Dettori’s five winners in the English Oaks began with Balanchine in 1994. His other wins were with Moonshell (1995), Kazzia (2002) and Enable (2017). Frank Buckle won the race a record nine times from 1797 to 1823.
Dettori received a two-day suspension for excessive use of whip on Anapurna.
Owned by Mark Weinfield and Helena Ellingsen’s Helena Springfield Ltd., Anapurna, by Frankel, had her group stakes debut in the English Oaks. She won the listed Oaks Trial Fillies’ Stakes at Lingfield Racecourse on May 11 in her first start on turf this year. In January, Anapurna won a maiden race on the all-weather surface at Lingfield.
Earlier on the Epsom program, Defoe (11-1) won the first Group 1 race of his career in the $563,231 Coronation Cup for older horses, his third start since being gelded last November.
Ridden by Andrea Atzeni, Defoe closed from the back of a field of nine to win by a head over 10-3 Kew Gardens, the second choice in the betting and the winner of the Group 1 English St. Leger last September. Lah Ti Dar, trained by Gosden, finished sixth as the 11-4 favorite.
Old Persian, who won the $6 million Dubai Sheema Classic in August against an international field, could only finish seventh at 10-3, beaten 14 1/4 lengths.
Defoe, a 5-year-old trained by Roger Varian for Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum, has won 8 of 17 starts. The Coronation Cup was his fifth stakes win. By Dalakhani, Defoe was 15th behind Enable in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp last October and was gelded a month later.
Earlier this year, Defoe was second in the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket, a race he won in 2018.