Could Dettori Go Through The Card On British Champions Day?

23 years ago Frankie Dettori bought the betting industry to a very near end when he landed all seven races on the British Champions Day card at Ascot and he has a huge chance of doing the same this Saturday where he sits on four favourites out of the six contests.

The Italian rider this season has had his most prolific campaign showing that age is just a number as he has landed 17 Group One contests and with that picked up the most wins at this seasons Royal Ascot.

Dettori nearly pulled off one of the biggest gambles in racings history when landing the first four races on the Thursday of the royal meeting with bookmakers quaking in their boots but he could not add to his tally.

Now back at the scene of his career highlight back in 1996 he has a huge chance to do it all over again and bookmakers will be hoping this is not the case.

(Credit Racing Post) Betfair's Barry Orr explained: "We find that customers who don't ordinarily place multiple bets throw caution to the wind when it comes to Frankie on these big days, especially when he has realistic chances in all six races – they don't want to miss out if he strikes gold."

We have looked through the 48 year old jockeys rides for the day and assessed how much of a chance he actually has of landing the unthinkable of winning every race on the card again.

Advertise is the riders first favourite of the day in the Sprint Stakes and this three year old trainer by Martyn Meade has been superb throughout his career.

The three year old who has won three Group Ones in his career picking up the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh as a two year old and then this season winning the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot and then on his latest run over in France landing the Prix Maurice de Gheest.

He was supposed to run in the Haydock Sprint Cup where he was set to go off as favourite but returned a dirty scope a few days before the race and was withdrawn.

Now fresh for his final run of the season he looks to have a big chance with the ground not being as soft it was with the switch to the inner track making him more likely to handle it.

This three year old for trainer John Gosden is the Italian's second runner of the afternoon and is a very familiar filly for the rider with him being on board him in her last three victories.

She made a great start to the season when landing a decent contest at Newbury but made her name for herself when landing the Group Two Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot.

From there she has took back to back Group One contests with the Irish Oaks at the Curragh and the Prix Vermeille at Longchamp.

She has proven she handles soft ground and if getting a lead at the front like she has in her previous contests she will be very hard to catch.

There is not a lot that needs to be said about this superstar stayer with him proving time and time again that he is the best in his division and has been for the last two years.

Gosden's stable star is unbeaten in his last 10 races and was last seen having a challenger pass him back in October 2017 on British Champions Day but the five year old stayer is looking to keep his winning run going.

Stradivarius in the last two seasons has scooped the Weatherbys Hamilton Stayers’ Million and was sure not be seen again until Ascot where he would round off his season in style but the horse came out of the Lonsdale Cup at York in good order and headed to Town Moor for the Doncaster Cup where again he won with ease.

The horse of a lifetime is now said to be right on track ahead of his run in the Group Two contest where he is looking to extend his unbeaten run to 11 but his trainer is very wary of how the ground will look on the day.

He is odds on favourite to take the spoils for the second season in a row and did win the race last year on soft ground, overcoming not his ideal surface to prevail in what looked one of his toughest wins for a while and surely he goes on to do it again.

One of the runners for Dettori on British Champions Day that looks the most likely to scupper his perfect winning streak on the day is King Of Comedy who has underperformed recently.

At the start of the season he showed great signs of improvement landing the Listed Heron Stakes at Sandown before finishing a very narrow second in the Group One St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Since then he has gone off the boil with weak performances in the Juddmonte International and Joel Stakes at Newmarket where he will have to reverse some form from these previous runs.

If there is one trainer that can find the best in the three year old again it is John Gosden and he could be primed for a big run once again.

The penultimate runner of the day for the 48 year old is Coronet who is a very consistent mare that has frequently popped up with some superb performances throughout her career.

The five year old heads to Champions Day fresher than many of the other horses missing a lot of the Autumn events with her main target being the Champion Stakes on Saturday.

Her last two performances put her in good stead to go well this weekend with two starts ago landing the Group One Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud over in France.

She backed that up over there again in the Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville on heavy ground showing she will revel in the muddy conditions and is a big player if being on her game after a small break.

This is the race that could bring the house down at Ascot on Saturday with Lord North and the lightly raced three year old gelding landed a huge gamble at Newmarket in the Cambridgeshire Handicap.

This makes him a huge player in the Balmoral Handicap this weekend going over a similar trip in another big field and if he handles the soft conditions he is sure to be in the mix.

Dettori had to work hard to get him up in the latter stages of that race and the team may employ the same tactics this time around with the gelding set to ride with a penalty.