Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Prix Jacques Le Marois (Group 1)

LANFRANCO Dettori is one of our sport’s ultimate showmen, but it will be stretching even his dramatic abilities to come up with any better days in the remaining three months of his glittering career than he enjoyed at Deauville last Sunday.

The script was nigh-on perfect. Riding a filly in Inspiral, who had seen her massive reputation take a nose dive following three straight defeats with some even daring to question her appetite for a fight at the age of four, and one who was said to need time between her races yet was being rushed back to action a mere 11 days after a Sussex Stakes flop, Dettori left one of his favourite weighing rooms with his riding boots on for the very last time.

Aware that the good to soft ground that prevailed for the Group 1 Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Prix Jacques Le Marois was softer than ideal for his mount, he might have been expected to hug the stands’ rail from his inside draw in the search of the fastest terrain.

Instead, aware that the likely front-runners were drawn in the centre, the 52-year-old dropped her out and switched right across behind the pacesetters, while at the same time avoiding the kind of dopey exit from the stalls that has plagued her in recent times.

One by one

Picking her 10 rivals off one by one, she drew alongside the leader, the gallant three-year-old Big Rock, approaching the furlong pole.

The youngster, who is proven over much further, threatened to outbattle her for a few strides, but Inspiral really stuck her neck out in the closing stages and had a length and a quarter in hand crossing the line, despite Dettori spending the last few strides saluting the crowd with his whip in exultation.

The partnership received a rapturous welcome into the winner’s enclosure where Dettori performed one of his trademark flying dismounts, though that gymnastic feat doesn’t quite achieve the same altitude as it once did.

As if that were not enough, all the top French riders, with Christophe Soumillon and Gerald Mosse to the fore, then joined the Italian on the podium to give him a proper send-off.

Then, the piece de resistance. The 81-year-old Yves Saint-Martin, a legend of the French jockeys fraternity and a former colleague of Dettori’s father, Gianfranco, but a rare visitor to the racecourse these days, entered stage left to give the valedictory gathering one final sprinkling of stardust.

Dettori was winning France’s most prestigious mile event for the fourth straight year, and a record eighth occasion in total.

In a row

Inspiral was taking it for the second year in a row, something that has been accomplished previously by just three horses: her former John and Thady Gosden stablemate Palace Pier, plus two of the sponsor’s home-breds: Spinning World and Miesque.

“It’s hard not to cry, I’m in a bit of a knot right now,” Dettori said afterwards. “I’ve not got any more booked rides for the rest of the meeting here so, after 30 years, I suppose that’s probably it and I love coming here, both for the afternoons and the evenings!”

“To finish like that is the kind of thing that normally only happens in the movies!”

John Gosden explained that, when the rain hit Goodwood, there had been a temptation to withdraw Inspiral from the Sussex Stakes.

“But taking her out would not have been the right thing to do, it would have dropped the field down to just four runners, so we tried our luck in the knowledge that Frankie would look after her if she was getting stuck in the ground.”

“We wouldn’t normally consider another race after just 11 days but she’s only raced twice this year and came out of Goodwood well.

“It’s a great honour for the yard to have won this race five times now and for this filly to emulate Miesque, who was one of my idols, is unbelievable.”

California

The race was a ‘Win And You’re In’ for the Breeders’ Cup Mile, so Inspiral might end her (and Dettori’s) career with a Californian adventure, though Gosden remarked that she might find the track at Santa Anita rather tight.

Big Rock will now be aimed at the Prix du Moulin while the Australian-owned Light Infantry, who excelled himself to take third, a length and a quarter behind the principals, and notch a sixth Group 1 placing, is likely to have just one more European outing before heading Down Under, according to his trainer, David Simcock.

NB: Inspiral was tipped by James in his preview and returned at 9/1.

ANOTHER top-class filly beat the boys to return to winning ways later on the card when Andre Fabre’s Prix de l’Opera heroine, Place Du Carrousel, did enough to hold off Bolthole by three-quarters of a length in the Group 3 Prix Gontaut-Biron Hong Kong Jockey Club over a mile and two furlongs.

Afterwards, Rupert Pritchard Gordon, racing manager to her owners Al Shaqab Racing, said: “Place Du Carrousel had a slight setback after her comeback in the Prix Ganay so we decided to wait for the autumn for her and it’s nice to get her back today.

“She could have another crack at the Opera but she’s also entered in the Arc and there’s nothing in her pedigree to suggest that she won’t stay a mile and a half.”

The opening Group 3 Circus Maximus Prix Francois Boutin, a seven-furlong juvenile event which celebrates the life of Miesque’s trainer, witnessed a good tussle between Patrice Cottier’s Grey Man and the Joseph O’Brien-trained Mythology.

And though the Irish raider had to settle for second place, beaten by a length, the result was not altogether unwelcome for Mythology’s owners, Coolmore Stud and partners, as Grey Man was completing a fine weekend for their sire, Wootton Bassett, also successful with Bucanero Fuerte at the Curragh on Saturday.

The other pattern event on the card, the Group 3 Prix Minerve over an extended mile and a half for three-year-old fillies, was one of the messiest affairs that I can remember on a track which Gosden praised for producing so few hard luck stories.

Fortune certainly smiled on the winner, Engaliwe, who got up right on the line to give his Lyon handler, Maxime Cesandri, just a second career victory at this level, beating Dschingis Star by a nose with the William Haggas-trained Crack Of Light a short neck back in third and Jessica Harrington’s front-running Scarlett O’Hara only a head adrift in fourth.

Tasmania, who had finished third in the Prix de Diane on her previous outing, was repeatedly denied running room up the straight and was beaten a total of little more than a length in sixth, while Joseph O’Brien’s Shamwari, who looked to be tailing herself off at the two furlong pole, might have got even closer than seventh, beaten two lengths, if she had been granted a clear passage close home.

THE top-drawer sport just kept on coming at Deauville last week and it was a pleasure to see Ace Impact, who looks set to joust with Paddington for ‘Champion Three-Year-Old’ status come season’s end, strut his stuff in Tuesday’s Group 2 Prix Guillame d’Ornano over a mile and two furlongs.

The Prix du Jockey Club victor may only have been facing lesser calibre opponents together with a pair of Group 1 winners in Joseph and Aidan O’Brien’s Al Riffa and Victoria Road who were on the comeback trail after interrupted campaigns, yet he still produced his trademark surge down the outside to come from last and land a cosy three-quarter length success ahead of Al Riffa.

Winning trainer Jean-Claude Rouget had said beforehand that Ace Impact was only 85% fit and did not enjoy the pressure of his Cracksman colt being such a red-hot favourite. “I have bad memories of Brametot getting beaten in this race in 2017,” Rouget said.

“But it couldn’t have gone any better and now we will have a long think about whether to send him to the Irish Champion. The Arc is his ultimate objective and we will either go straight there or try to boost his stallion career in Ireland, I’m not keen on the Prix Niel.”