Frankie Dettori has been taking an average of nine mounts per week in Britain since the start of May, but he is enjoying one of his most successful seasons in more than three decades in the saddle and will hope to move even further clear of his weighing-room rivals in terms of winnings this season when he rides Enable in the King George at Ascot on Saturday.
Dettori has had just 104 rides in the current Flat jockeys’ championship, fewer than any other rider in the top 50. His strike-rate, though, is exceptional at 26% and he has registered eight Group One wins already, equalling his final total in each of the last two seasons. His mounts have won more than £3m in Britain alone, almost £400k more than those of Ryan Moore, who is next in the list. James Doyle, in third, has just won just over £1.5m.
And yet as Dettori admitted at Sandown Park on Thursday, he still gets nervous before a big-race assignment like the King George, which Enable will enter on a 10-race winning streak that dates back to May 2017 after her latest win in the Eclipse Stakes earlier this month.
“I rode her yesterday and she’s in good fettle and all systems go,” Dettori said. “Everybody’s turned up [for Saturday’s race] and when you’re in these big races, you’ve got to compete with the best. We’re ready for the challenge and I’d like to tell you that I’m not nervous but of course I’m nervous. I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m carrying the hopes of the nation and theoretically she’s one of the best horses in the world so I just want everything to go well.
“She was good [in the Eclipse] and we know what she’s capable of so I wasn’t surprised [by her win]. She’s had a better preparation than last year, no hiccups.”
Enable is the hot favourite for Saturday’s race after the final declaration stage on Thursday morning, when all 11 of the five-day entries stood their ground.
John Gosden’s mare is a 4-7 chance while Crystal Ocean, who was one of Dettori’s Group One winners last month when successful in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, is 11-4. Anthony Van Dyck, the Derby winner, is an 8-1 chance while Defoe, who took the Coronation Cup at Epsom in early June, is 12-1. France and Japan are also represented in the field via Waldgeist (16-1) and Cheval Grand (33-1) respectively.
Ascot 1.50 Stars In The Sky 2.25 Surf Dancer 3.00 Crystal King 3.35 Magnetic Charm 4.10 Almost Midnight 4.45 Arecibo 5.15 Texting
Uttoxeter 2.00 Naasik 2.35 Annie Angel 3.10 Jen’s Boy 3.45 New Millennium 4.20 Your Band 4.55 Slaine 5.25 Annajemima
Thirsk 2.10 Galadriel 2.45 Baltic State 3.20 Tails I Win 3.55 Troubador 4.30 Remember The Days 5.05 Pinarella 5.40 Spot Lite
Newmarket 5.35 Kachumba 6.10 Laikaparty 6.40 Making History 7.10 Almashriq 7.40 Passion And Glory 8.10 Hydroplane 8.40 Maksab
Chepstow 5.45 Misu Pete 6.15 Bermuda Schwartz 6.45 Broadhaven Dream 7.15 Lapidary 7.45 Seafaring Girl 8.15 Road To Paris 8.45 And The New
York 6.00 Chance 6.30 Equiano Springs 7.00 Boosala 7.30 Encapsulation (nap) 8.00 Mustarrid (nb) 8.30 Little Legs