the gosden/dettori fall-out.

​A small detail overlooked by those commentating on the fall-out between John Gosden and Frankie Dettori is the opening show on who will replace Frankie at Clarehaven next season, if, as is speculated, Frankie is on his way out. Hollie Doyle is 4/11 to become the Gosdens’ stable jockey. Who would have thought such a possibility would come about eighteen-months ago. Ten-years ago anyone suggesting a female jockey would rise to such dizzying heights would have been taken frogmarched to the asylum wearing a straightjacket. The 7/1 about the other Doyle, James, to get the prized job is both better value and more likely, at least to my mind. He is too good to ply his trade as anyone’s second jockey and I believe John Gosden might see him as a safer pair of hands just at this moment in Holly’s career.
Of course, the main story is the seemingly likely event of Frankie Dettori having rode for Clarehaven for the last time. It is an almost inconceivable turn of events after the success the pair have had to together since Gosden picked Frankie figuratively out of the gutter and gave him a golden opportunity to redeem himself. And no one can say otherwise; Frankie was grateful for the opportunity to remind the racing world of his great prowess in the saddle and he has repaid Gosden in spades, silver spades not just ordinary garden spades.
Frankie’s business manager has told the press that the new situation was a bolt from the blue that only manifested when Frankie’s usual phone call about upcoming rides to the Clarehaven office was not returned. Of course, it is perfectly possible that this is not a red card but only a yellow, a shot across the Italian bows to let him know that John and Thady are quite serious in whatever threat or warning has been issued. It would also be interesting to know what part Gosden junior has played in the matter and was the hint that Gosden senior aired after Holly Doyle won the French Oaks for the team a message that Dettori did not heed? For the uninitiated, Gosden used the word ‘team’ and the combination of Holly and Thady in the same sentence that he tongue-in-cheek suggested he was now surplus to requirements at Clarehaven.
The damning evidence in what has happened since Royal Ascot was said directly after the Ascot Gold Cup when Bjorn Nielsen apparently said. ‘You can’t blame the horse here.’ I suspect John Gosden, as good a diplomat as you’ll find in horse racing, is having his hand forced by a movement within the ranks of Clarehaven’s owners. Again, and this just my uninformed take on things, that quote of Bjorn Nielsen’s is heavy with thoughts of replacing Frankie if Stradivarius is to have his final swansong in the Goodwood Cup. And if Bjorn Nielsen is thinking along those lines, then, perhaps, other prominent owners have also inquired about a change of jockey?
At his best, and quite honestly towards the end of last season and on many occasion this season Frankie has ridden some mediocre races, he is as good a jockey as I have witnessed, up there with Cauthen, Carson, Fallon and Moore, with only the latter his superior, though only because Ryan is more consistent, less prone to gaffs.
Does Frankie deserve to be given the boot halfway through the season? Well, Emily Upjohn at Epsom was a sporting disaster. Lord North at Royal Ascot was just plain embarrassing for a jockey of Dettori’s experience. Stradivarius was just an awful ride in the Gold Cup, dropping the best stayer in the race, perhaps the only one guaranteed to stay the distance and like the ground, three last when he had plenty of opportunity to move up behind the leaders. And, of course, John Gosden thought Frankie should have won on Her Majesty’s Saga and reading between the lines I doubt if he gave him many points out of ten for his ride on Reach For The Moon. Then there was his ride on Stradivarius in the last season’s Ascot Gold Cup and his ride on Palace Pier on Champions Day. And who knows how many other occasions the Gosdens have been less than happy with the riding of ‘their hero’? And we can only guess what has gone on in private to cause this rift between one of our greatest trainers and one of our greatest jockeys.
Frankie has made it clear on several occasions that he feels he has a few years left in the saddle, so no one should advise him to retire and there is a trainer or owner in Britain, Ireland or France who will snap up his services if he were to become available. I doubt if this is the last we will see of him in the saddle. I hope not, anyway.