Aside from not winning his favourite race the Epsom Derby aboard the well-backed Arrest, Frankie Dettori couldn’t have dreamt of a better start to his farewell tour when he announced last year that the 2023 flat campaign would be his last in the saddle.
The 52-year-old might have flattered to deceive in Britain’s most prestigious race, but he has still managed to win two of the four Classics to date. The fairytale started with a victory in the 2,000 Guineas — the first Classic of the year — atop Chaldean and it continued as he landed his seventh Oaks with Soul Sister earlier this month.
The St Leger at Doncaster in September will be his last crack at a Classic and he will be a jockey in demand when it comes to trainers booking riders. But it’s not just about Britain’s big five races, there are plenty more big contests he would like to win before he hangs up the whip and one of those is coming up next month — the July Cup at Newmarket.
The July Festival showpiece is the only Group 1 race Dettori hasn’t won at least once in his glittering career and the Italian will be keen to ensure that he doesn’t retire at the end of the season with all but one of Britain’s 36 top-level races on his impressive CV.
His last chance of winning the July Cup will come in the saddle of the Ralph Beckett-trained Kinross. The six-year-old is a 10/1 chance in the horse race betting, which makes him the co-fifth favourite with Godolphin’s Al Suhail and Michael Dods’ Azure Blue — who is on a run of four-straight wins at the time of writing, three of which came on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile course while he won the Group 2 Duke Of York Stakes most recently.
Dettori has enjoyed a wealth of success in the saddle of Kinross, particularly last season when the Marc Chan-owned horse enjoyed his best year to date — winning the Group 2 Sky Bet City Of York Stakes, the Group 2 Park Stakes, the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp and the top-level British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot’s season finale before finishing a close third in the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland in the United States.
Kinross is yet to be seen since his busy 2022 campaign, but he’s set to reappear in the Queen Elizabeth 11 Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 24. He’s the 8/1 fourth favourite for the Group 1 contest on the final day of the meeting behind Australian runner Artorius, Hong Kong raider Wellington and British rival Highfield Princess.
How Kinross fares at Ascot could give us a better indication of just how likely Dettori is to finally win the July Cup. But it’s worth noting that the Newmarket race looks much tougher, especially because Aidan O’Brien’s Little Big Bear is at the fore of the market.
The Coolmore horse was disappointingly last in the 2,000 Guineas but bounced back under nonother than Dettori in the Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock last month and looks to keep his form going in Ascot’s Commonwealth Cup. He will be very hard to stop, while the aforementioned Highfield Princess, Sakheer and Shaquille are high-quality opponents as well.
