Dettori caps four-win day at Royal Ascot with Stradivarius in Gold Cup

Stradivarius’s second straight win in the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup was jockey Frankie Dettori’s fourth straight win on the Royal Ascot card Thursday.

That’s a photo finish for remarkable accomplishments, though Dettori might have won the head bob. Winning mounts at Europe’s most prestigious race meeting are a precious commodity and four during the entire five-day stand is a good haul. To win four on a day, all in succession, is all but impossible – 449-1, in fact, just in terms of the sheer number of entrants.

“It was a brilliant day and long may it continue,” said Dettori, who appeared to be on the way to a fifth straight win Thursday before longshot Biometric ran down Dettori’s mount, Turgenev, who had opened a big homestretch lead in the Brittania Stakes.

Dettori won the Grade 2 Norfolk Stakes aboard A’ali for trainer Simon Crisford, the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes on Sangarius for trainer Michael Stoute, and the Group 2 Ribblesdale on Rally Catcher for trainer John Gosden before piloting the Gosden-trained Stradivarius to Gold Cup glory. It has been in great part due to Gosden’s unwavering support that Dettori, at 48, has experienced a late-career return to superstardom.

“I love to ride for John Gosden as I have no pressure,” Dettori said.

With a quarter mile of the 2 1/2-mile Gold Cup left, Dettori surely felt at least a tingle of pressure to find someplace for Stradivarius to run. The heavy favorite and leading stayer in Europe after a perfect 2018 campaign and a Yorkshire Cup win in his 5-year-old debut, Stradivarius was lodged just behind pacesetters Dee Ex Bee and Master of Reality for several furlongs and when it came time to make a move toward the lead, Capri on the outside locked Stradivarius into the pocket. Capri proved unable to match strides with Dee Ex Bee and Master of Reality past the quarter-mile marker, leaving Dettori space to swing outside and come with his run. Stradivarius, who has a strong turn of foot for a horse that can stay 2 1/2 miles, surged to the front and held firm, wining by one length.

Master of Reality, a huge longshot, got his head in front of Dee Ex Bee with a furlong to run but Dee Ex Bee battled on to finish second by a nose. Cross Counter, the only deep closer to make headway, was another three-quarters of a length back in fourth following wins in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup and Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

The Gold Cup was run over a course softened by rain throughout the week and Stradivarius won in spite of the going rather than because of it.

“This is not Stradivarius' favored ground - he is a much better horse on top of the ground - but he has just shown that he can still quicken on that kind of ground,” Gosden said. “Full marks to a remarkable horse, and a mercurial and remarkable jockey.”

Gosden trains Stradivarius for owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen and the 5-year-old son of Sea the Stars and Private Life, by Bering, now has 11 wins from 16 starts.

A’ali takes Norfolk, Sangarius impresses in Hampton Court

A’ali was beaten a neck in a Ripon maiden race first time out but in his second start won the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes by the same margin to start Thursday’s Royal Ascot card.

The Norfolk is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In race for the Juvenile Turf Sprint, and A’ali, who is Breeders’ Cup-nominated, gains automatic fees-paid entry into that race plus travel expenses to America.

A’ali, ridden by Frankie Dettori for trainer Simon Crisford, raced midpack in the five-furlong straight-course Norfolk, made steady progress from the halfway point, hit the front with about a furlong left, and held clear a late run from Ventura Rebel to win by a neck. The top two distanced themselves from the rest of a bulky field with third-place Dubai Station almost three lengths farther back in third. Owing to soft turf, trainer Wesley Ward scratched his entrant, Maven.

A’ali, owned by Duaij Al Khalifa, is by Society Rock out of Motion Lass, by Motivator.

One race later, Sangarius made a strongly favorable impression winning the Group 3 Hampton Court by 2 1/4 lengths for trainer Michael Stoute and owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah. Sangarius, by Kingman out of Trojan Queen, by Empire Maker, won his first two starts at age 2 before finishing fourth in Too Darn Hot’s Group 1 Dewhurst win. In his 3-year-old debut May 23 he was third in a listed stakes won by the talented King of Comedy, a fast-closing second in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday, and Sangarius excelled Thursday in his first start beyond one mile.

Chasing the leaders while always in the bridle for Dettori in this 1 1/4-mile test, Sangarius quickened between horses with about a furlong-and-a-half remaining and quickly opened daylight.

Fox Chairman was second, King Ottokar third.

► Star Catcher and Dettori got first run on favored Fleeting and won the Group 2 Ribblesdale by 1 1/2 lengths. Gosden trains Star Catcher, a daughter of Sea the Stars and the Horse Chestnut mare Lynnwood Chase for Anthony Oppenheimer.