WHEN your luck’s in, your luck’s in, and the wheel of fortune is currently pointing to ‘Jackpot’ almost every time Frankie Dettori has a spin.

This was highlighted by his final ride on the Deauvile card, Joplin, for the the little-known German handler Dieter Fechner, somehow winning the €48,000 Listed Qatar Prix de la Calonne despite his rider committing a foul.

Joplin was switched left two furlongs out, impeding Cherry Lady, and Dettori pretty much admitted culpability by stopping riding for a while and glancing nervously across at his victim.

Joplin then quickened up most determinedly to catch Silvery Mist close home and score by half a length. Cherry Lady finished quite well too, to miss out on third place by a length, and by the old French rules the winner would surely have been disqualified.

But the stewards decided that Cherry Lady would not have beaten Joplin even with a clear run so, under the recently tweaked regulations, the result was not changed and Dettori escaped punishment.

This meant that, in the preceding eight-day period, he had won on nine of his 14 rides, including three Group 1s and three more stakes races – and in that time he had even managed to sneak in a 48-hour break back in his native Italy to watch the Palio in Siena!

Tate two from two

Newmarket trainer James Tate is enjoying a fine season, hence his exceptional 25% strike rate with his domestic runners, and he made it two out of two in France in 2019 when Far Above edged home by a short-neck and a short-head under P.J. McDonald in the €55,000 Listed Qatar Prix Kistena over six furlongs.

Despite the narrow margin, the Farhh colt deserves plenty of credit for getting the job done given that he pulled hard for much of the first half of the race.

“Far Above has always shown plenty at home but he’s still a bit immature,” Tate reported. “I think he’s on the road to becoming a very good sprinter but I’m not sure if that’ll be this season or next.He’s getting quicker and quicker so I think we’ll drop him back to five furlongs and look for a group race now.”

POLYDREAM burst into the big league when displaying a withering turn of foot to land the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville last August and further showpiece victories seemed sure to go her way.

But the Freddy Head-trained daughter of Oasis Dream has suffered numerous misfortunes since then, including horrendous traffic problems during the Prix de la Foret and a fruitless trip to America when the Breeders’ Cup officials decided that she was lame and banned her from running.

So last Thursday evening’s win in the Group 3 €80,000 Prix de la Porte Maillot over ParisLongchamp’s seven furlongs was her first after three straight defeats.

The defence of her Maurice de Gheest crown is up next and she should go well, though she does look a little one-dimensional in needing to be ridden from miles off the pace and delivered very late.