The 13th race at Royal Ascot 2023 proved to be the charm for Frankie Dettori, as he put behind him his significant setbacks on the opening day and finally got a winner on the board at his last Royal meeting. Dettori seized control of the Queen’s Vase from the off aboard Gregory, the even-money favourite, and simply refused to yield as Saint George and Oisin Murphy ground their way to within a head of the leader in the straight.
It was the moment that Dettori and also the meeting had needed and, having fought off Saint George after he came alongside a furlong out, Gregory stayed on again to finish a length and a half clear at the line. It was a performance with “St Leger” running through it like a watermark and Gregory is now favourite for the final British Classic of the season, and also of Dettori’s long career.
“I thought this winner was never going to come this year,” Dettori said. “I had three seconds yesterday, but I knew this would be my best chance.
“I was in front a long time and when Oisin came to me, I thought: ‘Oh no, not second again.’ To ride a winner at my last Royal Ascot is fantastic. It’s great, my family is here, it’s the only day they all are. He jumped great and got to the front and I knew he stayed very well.”
Dettori is still pondering whether to appeal against a nine-day ban for careless riding imposed by the stewards on Tuesday after he was found to have caused significant interference aboard Saga shortly after the start of the Wolferton Stakes.
The suspension is scheduled to rule him out of the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown next month, when he is due to ride Emily Upjohn, the current favourite.
“Yesterday, Chaldean ran super and found one too good,” Dettori said of his runner-up in the St James’s Palace Stakes. “The filly [Inspiral] got a bit tired maybe and then I got run over [on Absurde] in the last by Ryan [Moore, on Vauban] so they all ran well, but you need luck as well.
“I’ve got my lawyers looking [at the suspension]. It’s sad to be missing Emily, but I’m glad nobody got hurt. It’s that point of the race that you get to a bottleneck and we all got together. If there’s room to appeal, we will, but I’m not going to do it just to waste everybody’s time.”
Gregory completed a double on the day for his trainers, John and Thady Gosden, after Mostahdaf, last seen in Europe when finishing last of the 20 runners in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe eight months ago, had left some of best 10-furlong horses in the world looking like statues in Prince of Wales’s Stakes earlier on the card.
Gosdens’ five-year-old spent the early part of the year in the Middle East, winning a Group Three in Saudi Arabia with ease before finishing out of the frame behind the exceptional Equinox on World Cup night in Dubai.
He arrived at Ascot off an 88-day break and started as the 10-1 fifth pick in the betting in a six‑strong field but he brushed aside his better‑fancied opponents, including the 1-2-3 from the Champion Stakes of last year, in a matter of strides and finished four lengths clear of Luxembourg at the line.
“I expected him to run on well in the straight,” John Gosden said, “but not to make them look like they were standing still. In fairness to him, he won the Neom Cup in Riyadh in that style, he just flew away. When the ground dries up, he’s brilliant.
“We were going to run him in the Brigadier Gerard [in May] but he hadn’t quite recovered from his Middle Eastern campaign, and he took on a certain Japanese horse in the Sheema Classic [in Dubai]. A mile and a half is beyond him, he’s a mile-and-a-quarter horse, but he was the only one that put it up to him [Equinox] and gave it his best go.”
Mostahdaf was unplaced in the one-mile St James’s Palace Stakes here two years ago and finished second, over 12 furlongs, in the Hardwicke Stakes in 2022. After his latest victory, however, he seems sure to stick to 10 furlongs and will be a force to reckon with wherever he runs.
“He’s been knocking at the door in some big races but it’s only now it’s really come to fruition,” Crowley said. “I probably went a bit too soon, but I didn’t want to disappoint him. When I pulled him out, he wanted to go, and away he went.”