Racing opinion: Things to look forward to including Frankie Dettori farewell and return of Oisin Murphy

It’s a tradition like no other as the racing world unites in festive harmony only to revert to squabble mode once the January bills roll in. There’s no shortage of topics to row about again as 2022 draws to a close but, thankfully, the list of names and stories to celebrate is longer still.

Frankie’s Farewell

I’ve heard multiple takes on the ITV scoop but none to match the tubthumping podcast convert who scolded a listener for raising that cocaine ban just minutes after his own innuendo-laced monologue about being told by "someone who would know" that the world’s most famous jockey was 1.01 to be "kaput by the end of the day by his means or not" during Derby weekend in 2018.

Tone issues aside, there will be ample time to assess Dettori's legacy when he finally walks away next November but a grand tour taking in all the big stages – and quite a few smaller ones – is right on brand for the man who has been racing's brightest star for thirty years.

Time will tell how many top races he can add to a list that started with Markofdistinction in 1989 and currently lies at more than 500 Group-race triumphs after Kinross and Emily Upjohn obliged in G1 company on Champions Day at Ascot.

Emily looks one of the aces in Frankie’s farewell pack – along with fellow Gosden filly Inspiral – but the chance to be a part of history is seductive and it will be fascinating to see how many old romances are rekindled along the road to Santa Anita next November.

Davy’s Departure

The yin and yang of Davy retiring just after Frankie’s big reveal was perfect.

One gave the watching world almost a year’s notice with the ITV stage to himself on a frozen Saturday while the other departed on the spot after a Sunday winner in the jumping heartland of Thurles, but sport needs its quiet achievers just as much as its showmen.

And Russell’s response when asked how long he had been pondering his exit by RTV’s Donn McClean provided a jarring illustration of the conflicting emotions involved.

“Oh sure, I’m thinking about it since they opened me up in Dublin a couple of years ago,” said the 43-year-old Cork man.

Russell sailed perilously close to paralysis after a 2020 Munster National fall, likening his hospital bed to “the last scene in Braveheart where they have William Wallace tied up and they’re stretching him away."

The fact that he picked the day to walk before the day picked him is something to celebrate. His place on the Mount Rushmore of jumps jockeys is secure – not least because his craggy visage has always looked like it was hewn from the side of a mountain.

Opportunity knocks if Murphy can deliver on promises

"You can make all these promises but, at the end of the day, you have got to commit.”

That short sentence will ring true with anyone who has been close to addiction and it sums Oisin Murphy’s situation up neatly as he prepares for a planned spring return to the saddle.

It’s easy to forget how much the three-time champion jockey had lost the plot as he shaded a punishing duel with William Buck for the 2021 championship and the 14-month ban he earned for a catalogue of offences relating to alcohol, Covid breaches and misleading the BHA have provided ample time for reflection and rehab.

But the one thing that doesn’t fade is the memory of the skill that carried Murphy to three titles (though the last one should have an asterisk against it given how it was built on deception) and a leading jockey title at Royal Ascot in 2021 when it didn’t seem a stretch to suggest he might even be the new Frankie.

Top jockeys usually end up riding for the best yards and a major door will open for someone once Frankie and the Gosdens finally part company.

But that’s for the long term. Murphy has a wonderful opportunity in 2023 if he can live by the mantra he laid down last summer and another title tussle with Buick – perhaps with the ever-improving Tom Marquand added to the mix – would be an ideal way to announce his return to the fold.

Venetia ready to get busy on Boxing Day again

'If you want something done, ask a busy man.'

The old phrase has been made gender neutral as befits a more enlightened age but, with Monday’s Ladbrokes King George VI Chase in mind, perhaps it should be modified further to read 'ask a busy man trained by a dynamic woman.'

L'Homme Presse is the busy man in question and Venetia Williams will be aiming to revisit the blazing glories of her early training days at Kempton on Boxing Day.

Williams saddled Teeton Mill to thrash past and future Gold Cup winners Imperial Call and See More Business in the 1998 King George and, after early uncertainty as to if he would run, L’Homme Presse has gradually settled at the price he deserves to be.

True, he faces a three-pronged attack from King George master Paul Nicholls and Bravemansgame has long looked ideal for three miles round Kempton.

But L'Homme Presse was clinical in capitalising on Bravemansgame’s withdrawal from the Brown Advisory at Cheltenham in March and the way he defied a mark of 164 in Newcastle’s Rehearsal Chase on his reappearance shows that he’s high class and still on the up.

Given her sustained excellence – with various Nationals and dozens of major handicap and Graded races tucked away - it came as a real shock to scroll down the ‘Big Race Wins’ section of the RP site and realise that Williams waited 20 years for her next G1 after Golden Goal won the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown in 2002.

Top-class chasers are clearly hard to come by, unless you are that man Nicholls, but the memories of Teeton Mill’s Kempton demolition job are still vivid. And, having ended the Williams G1 drought with a runaway Scilly Isles success last winter, L’Homme Presse looks primed to propel his popular handler right back to the big time at Kempton.

Festival Fever

You won’t get much change out of eight quid for a pint of Guinness in a wobbly plastic glass and the latest solution to extortionate local hotel prices is a 'fan village' filled with the sort of shipping container pods used by building workers ahead of the Qatar World Cup.

But let’s look on the bright side. The spectre of a five-day Festival has been banished against most people's expectations and, with the Winter Solstice just behind us, there is a two-month window for the best jumpers on both sides of the Irish Sea to state their case.

Seven horses are currently priced at 2/1 or shorter for the 2023 Festival but six were turned over from that price bracket this year and I won’t be the only one going through a mental game of ‘play or lay’ with this year’s 2023 Festival bankers over Christmas.

• Facile Vega is a best priced 5/4 for the Supreme – no thanks
• Jonbon is already 11/8 for the Arkle – and I can resist quite easily
• Constitution Hill is 4/11 for the Champion – and how do you argue?
• Enurgumene is evens for the Champion Chase – and may well go off shorter
• Delta Work is 2/1 for the Cross Country – and there’s no Tiger Roll this time
• Allaho is 2/1 for a third Ryanair – which means bookies feel there’s a doubt
• Galopin des Champs is 2/1 for the Gold Cup – and there is something special about him

O’Brien and life after Galileo

They aren’t making any more by the greatest sire of modern times and watching how Aidan and the Lads evolve in the post-Galileo era is going to be fascinating.

Kyprios and Oaks and Breeders’ Cup heroine Tuesday kept the Galileo flag flying over Ballydoyle in 2022 - and there is still time for another star to emerge from his final crops – but their numbers are limited and the time has come for other sires to fill the void.

No Nay Never is clearly going to play a significant role after the juvenile exploits of Blackbeard, Meditate and Little Big Bear in 2022, while Wootton Bassett’s move to Coolmore a couple of years ago should start to bear fruit from 2023.

But Galileo’s death leaves a hole that will be extremely hard to fill in elite races over ten furlongs plus.

Camelot has done his bit with Luxembourg and Santa Barbara and Siyouni supplied an ace in St Mark’s Basilica. However, it could be that the Galileo of the Far East holds the key to dreams of the Triple Crown that Camelot came so close to.

Auguste and the Triple Crown Dream

Coolmore’s limited use of Japanese superstar sire Deep Impact has already produced a Guineas winner in Saxon Warrior and a triple Oaks heroine in Snowfall and there is nothing fanciful in the suggestion that a colt from his final crop - the elegant Auguste Rodin - could be another star in the making.

True, he didn’t look exceptional early, being pushed out to win a Naas maiden and a winnable Leopardstown G2 on Irish Champions Weekend, but Auguste Rodin gave the impression he was very much a work in progress and he cut a much more impressive figure in the Vertem Futurity at Doncaster in October, needing several cracks to assert then pulling well clear of the highly-regarded Epictetus and proven Pattern-race colt Holloway Boy.

Auguste Rodin only ran at Donny once Aidan had inspected the testing ground and faster conditions will suit his fluent action extremely well. As for recent trends, it’s worth noting that the last four O’Brien Vertem winners who contested the Guineas – Camelot, Saxon Warrior, Magna Grecia and Luxembourg – finished first, first, first and third at Newmarket.

There’s a good reason why more than fifty years have passed since Nijinsky won the Triple Crown for Vincent O’Brien. Colts with the required combination of speed, stamina and resilience are rare indeed. But Auguste Rodin is going to stay very well as a three-year-old. And if he can snag the first leg on May 6 – for which he is a general 5/1 chance - then the Triple Crown will start to become a good bit more than just a long-distance dream.

Dubawi the key to another Appleby annus mirabilis

When was the last time a trainer went into a new year with eight different G1 winners at his disposal?

It can’t have happened often, if ever, but Charlie Appleby is loaded in various divisions heading into 2023, with Mysterious Night as a potential Guineas colt, Creative Force for the sprints, Modern Games and Native Trail for the mile division and Adayar, Hurricane Lane, Yibir and Rebel’s Romance for middle distances.

Impressive Gimcrack winner Noble Style is back from a bout of colic and set to take in the Greenham ahead of a clash with the best from Ballydoyle on Guineas day, while Breeders’ Cup runner-up Silver Knott and Leger disappointment New London could take high rank as the year goes on.

Three more BC scores took Appleby to nine winners from 18 runners at America’s autumn showpiece and his duels with Aidan – who notched three BC winners of his own - will go a long way towards shaping the European season again.

For the record, Aidan edged the G1 tussle by 14-13 this year, with Kyprios supplying four thanks to his staying supremacy. Expect another close battle again in 2023 but the fact that Dubawi is still going strong should play a big part in Appleby’s continued prosperity.

The game goes on

It’s funny how certain written pieces hit the spot while others fail to gain traction and last week’s Permacrisis File didn’t land so well as I’d hoped.

Perhaps it was the counter attraction of Frankie’s retirement; maybe it's because people simply don’t like pondering problems as Christmas approaches; or perhaps it just wasn't much cop.

Either way, I hope this week’s File strikes a much more upbeat note. It’s easy to get caught up in negativity in all walks of life nowadays and it would be folly to ignore the fact that British racing will be up against it in several key areas next year.

Perhaps I’m wrong to doubt that a BHA front line of chief executive Julie Harrington and chair Joe Saumarez Smith will be a winning combination but, if nothing else, Lee Mottershead's sensational pre-Christmas RP interview with the latter will keep me chuckling well into the new year.

'The second largest racing library in the country' and a string of outlandish punting tales will only go so far in helping the bold Joe make racing a more compelling year-round sport and the fear that not much will have changed by this time next year persists.

But then I recall Sir Stoute beaming after Desert Crown’s Derby; Sir Mark glowing with pride after Alpinista’s Arc; W Mullins doffing his trilby after another Festival score; Russell and Dettori deciding the time is right; the collective gasp as Nature Strip and Baaeed conquered Ascot and York; an altogether different gasp as Shishkin bombed at Cheltenham; the joyous relief as Josh Moore came back from the brink; and the sombre stillness that enveloped Champions Day at Leopardstown after the loss of Henry de Bromhead's son Jack.

Counting your blessings is important at this time of year and, for all its multiple woes, I don’t really doubt that this is still the game for me. And, if you've come this far, I suspect it’s probably still the game for you.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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