Lingfield Saturday

IT’S now official that Frankie Dettori has not lost his knack over the winter, and the way he controlled the Group 3 Winter Derby aboard John Gosden’s Dubai Warrior was a joy to behold.

He made the excellent Silvestre de Sousa look like a raw apprentice on odds-on favourite Bangkok (Andrew Balding), although he was very much aided by the riding of Kieran O’Neill on his stablemate Court House, who took up a position which made it difficult for de Sousa to adopt a stalking role, and resulted in Bangkok over-racing.

Dettori asked Dubai Warrior to use his raking stride to stretch clear early in the straight and had his race won from that point. In the end, he had two and three-quarter lengths to spare over Court House, with Bangkok half a length further back.

The Easter Classic on Good Friday is next on the agenda for the winner.

Unlikely win for Henry

Fontwell Sunday

THE National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell on Sunday is named after one famous Champion Hurdle winner, and has been won twice by another in the shape of Comedy Of Errors, while Beech Road is the only horse in the past 50 years to have won both races in the same season.

It’s been looked on as more of a trial for the Stayers’ Hurdle in recent years, and My Way De Solzen completed that double in 2006.

Slog

The 2020 renewal was certainly a slog, but it is unlikely to produce any champions this year, with William Henry (Nicky Henderson/Nico de Boinville) coming from an almost hopeless position on the top bend to grab victory from the tiring Quel Destin (Paul Nicholls/Sam Twiston-Davies) and Thomas Darby (Olly Murphy/Aidan Coleman), both of whom having traded at 1.12 or shorter in the run.

The 10-year-old was returned at 5/1, and was left on a mark of 156 after this win, so will presumably aim for a repeat in the Coral Cup, with Nicky Henderson all but ruling out the Stayers’ before this contest.

GERARD O’Leary had his second winner in Britain in recent weeks when Newgirlintown landed a minor event at Chelmsford on Saturday.

Gavin Cromwell was also on target courtesy of Dazzling Darren, who completed a remarkable hat-trick of wins in February when scoring at Wolverhampton on Monday, adding to his wins at Chelmsford and Lingfield earlier in the month.