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Frankie Dettori must wait before facing tough challenge

Sat, 18 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

The fortitude and patience of Frankie Dettori will be tested in the short term with the news that his comeback, scheduled for Leicester tomorrow evening, was confirmed to be on hold yesterday. The rider's six-month ban for failing a dope test at Longchamp last September expires today, but he has yet to be passed fit to race by the sport's French governing body, France Galop, and the British Horseracing Authority cannot relicence him without clearance from their Gallic counterparts.

Fencing can make mark in Lockinge

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:42 GMT

Heavy support during the week suggests a new officer is ready for promotion to the elite corps at Ballydoyle.

Frankie Dettori at the crossroads as he returns

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:00:36 GMT

So the agony of Frankie Dettori is prolonged. Two days before the scheduled end of his six-month drugs suspension, the jockey discovered that a hold-up in paperwork may yet prevent him from riding at Leicester on Monday. If nothing else, this latest melodrama seemed an apt symbol of what has become an excruciating rut for a sport shorn of glamour by the retirement of Frankel. Suddenly the curiosity of outsiders has obtained a new edge of malice. For however offensive the stereotype, to its professional community, it now seems perfectly excusable to ask who is more likely to be on drugs: the horse, or the jockey?

Libertarian frees up Derby odds with Yorkshire win

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:29:59 GMT

He would not have the class, surely, or the speed. He isn't even the right shape. But the sudden squall of hail prompted by his success here suggested that Libertarian, if nothing else, will introduce due grit to the British Turf's greatest race. For his shock success in the trial that honours the North's last winner – now 68 years ago – plainly qualified this big, dour brute as a fitting ambassador for Yorkshire in the Investec Derby a fortnight tomorrow.

Doubts over career led to Frankie Dettori's drug-taking

Thu, 16 May 2013 21:29:59 GMT

Frankie Dettori has had 15 random drug tests during the last two months as he prepares to make his return to the saddle at Leicester on Monday. The jockey, banned for six months after traces of cocaine showed in a sample taken at Longchamp last September, told Channel 4 News of his sense of shame and humiliation. "I feel like Lance Armstrong," he said. "They come and knock on my door any time of the day."

Nauticus finds it far from plain sailing in Investec Oaks trial

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:58:31 GMT

If this was supposed to be the preliminary sketch for an Epsom masterpiece, then for now Liber Nauticus remains closer to an oil tanker than a dashing ocean clipper. Nonetheless she finds herself disputing favouritism for the Investec Oaks, bookmakers having taken an indulgent view of the heavy weather she made of her trial here.

Nauticus finds far from plain sailing in Oaks trial

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:58:31 GMT

Frankie Dettori confesses to cocaine 'shame'

Wed, 15 May 2013 20:58:31 GMT

With just four days still to serve, Frankie Dettori's first television interview since the start of his six-month drugs suspension will be broadcast on Channel 4 this evening. Though he has previously acknowledged succumbing to "a moment of madness", Dettori explicitly admits that he had taken cocaine before failing a random test at Longchamp last September.

Frankie Dettori admits for the first time to taking cocaine

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:07:57 GMT

Jockey Frankie Dettori said he was “very ashamed and embarrassed” after being banned for six months after testing positive for cocaine.

Sir Michael Stoute needs Nauticus for Classic relaunch

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:51:19 GMT

The stakes, coming to York this week, were already uncomfortably high. Having seen rival trainers carve up the other Epsom trials, Sir Michael Stoute had the hot favourites for the two that remained – for colts and fillies respectively – even though each had so far won only a maiden. Today, however, the outlook became still more precarious. An untimely setback meant that Stoute was unable to declare Telescope for the Betfred Dante Stakes tomorrow, and the colt's participation in the Investec Derby is now in the balance. Suddenly the performance of Liber Nauticus in the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes today has obtained grim new significance for the 10-times champion trainer.

Bin Suroor and Godolphin hope to put scandal Farhh behind them

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:45:22 GMT

Since agreeing to part company, last autumn, Frankie Dettori and Godolphin have each been tainted by unexpected scandal. Both, however, are now hoping for a fresh start. Next Monday, Dettori returns from a six-month drugs ban for his first freelance mounts following nearly two decades with Godolphin. In the meantime, however, Sheikh Mohammed’s elite stable – rocked by an eight-year suspension for the trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni, over the administration of anabolic steroids – is itself beginning to stir back into life. Saeed bin Suroor, the trainer who had been leapfrogged by Zarooni prior to his former assistant’s disgrace, hopes to resume business as usual at Newbury on Saturday by winning the JLT Lockinge Stakes for a fifth time.

Aidan O’Brien Battle lines are massed for Epsom

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:04:39 GMT

The perceived wisdom is that if a trainer thinks he has a cluster of Derby contenders, then he hasn’t any. Perhaps there is something in the theory; Aidan O’Brien’s three winners of the premier Classic – Galileo, High Chaparral and Camelot – were respectively accompanied to post by zero, two and one stablemates. And the scattergun years – there were eight Ballydoyle runners in 2007, for instance, and six in 2009 – have tended to yield only minor placings.

Nevis stakes his claim for place in Classic reckoning

Sat, 11 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Another day, another Derby trial won by Aidan O'Brien. After Ruler Of The World and Magician at Chester, it was the turn of Nevis at Lingfield to confirm that the Ballydoyle team at least have quantity on their side in the run-up to Epsom, even if its quality will not be defined until the day itself, 1 June. It is a fair assumption, though, that Nevis will not be carrying the Co Tipperary stable's first colours; he won by nine lengths yesterday, but then so he should have, as his opposition was rendered negligible by the late withdrawal of the strongly fancied Greatwood.

Greatwood ready to justify Derby aspirations for the home defence

Fri, 10 May 2013 23:00:22 GMT

Already battle lines seem clearly drawn for the Investec Derby. Entrenched on one side, following an exuberant success in his first Classic seven days ago, is a hot favourite in Dawn Approach.

Ruler asserts Epsom prerogative

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:59:14 GMT

The least they deserved, huddled against the vile rain and wind, was a proper Epsom colt – and that is exactly what the shivering Ladies' Day crowd saw, by name and nature, in Ruler Of The World. Mind you, his runaway success in the MBNA Chester Vase represented only a first increment in Ballydoyle's resistance to Dawn Approach. The Investec Derby favourite is trained for Sheikh Mohammed by Jim Bolger, once mentor to Aidan O'Brien. With the Ballydoyle trainer still to try out various candidates at Lingfield, Leopardstown and York, the likely loss of Kingsbarns – still struggling to get over his setback – is not going to prevent an intriguing Derby stand-off between the sheikh and his traditional adversaries at Coolmore Stud.

Richard Fahey delivers cup via Address Unknown

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:57:31 GMT

Round and round the bends they go, a stampede of blurred colour, until hypnotically imprinted on the ambition of those who bring horses here every May. But even the dizziest obsession can be consummated more or less by accident, as Richard Fahey confessed after providing Dr Marwan Koukash with the winner he craved in the most venerable Chester carousel of all.

Fahey delivers cup via Address Unknown

Wed, 08 May 2013 20:57:31 GMT

Mahmood al-Zarooni appeals against eight-year ban from training following Godolphin scandal

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:51:25 GMT

If the British Horseracing Authority and Sheikh Mohammed had both hoped that the dust might finally begin to settle on the Godolphin steroids scandal, they were disappointed when its author unexpectedly contrived to stoke things up anew. Mahmood al-Zarooni was given an eight-year ban after conceding sole responsibility for 11 positive tests among 45 samples taken at his Newmarket yard last month, but has now lodged a protest against the severity of that penalty.

Mahmood Al Zarooni appeals against eight-year ban from training

Tue, 07 May 2013 15:51:25 GMT

The British Horseracing Authority said Mahmood Al Zarooni has lodged an appeal against the severity of an eight-year suspension from training.

Camelot renews quest in triumphant style

Mon, 06 May 2013 22:06:36 GMT

The return to action of a Derby winner is always a matter of moment, particularly one with the charisma of Camelot, who seemed to be involved last year in more tales and trials than any knight of the table round. The colt, bearer of the Ballydoyle arms, so nearly achieved the holy grail of the Triple Crown, narrowly denied the final leg, the St Leger, by a Godolphin rival trained by the now disgraced Mahmood al-Zarooni.

Hughes and Sky Lantern put smiles back into Turf

Sun, 05 May 2013 23:55:52 GMT

Sometimes a race can obtain an instant patina of nostalgia. It had happened overnight, an ocean away, when one of the most admired firms of the old school finally consummated its wholesome influence on the breed by winning the Kentucky Derby. And it happened here yesterday, when a Classic of still greater antiquity was gilded, in its 200th running, by a breakthrough for one of the most sublime riding talents of the modern era.

Bolger offers Godolphin a new Dawn

Sun, 05 May 2013 23:55:52 GMT

It was only a profession of objectivity, but nobody else will be taking its terms at all literally. "It doesn't matter who owns or trains the horse," Jim Bolger said. "I'm very impressed with him." In reality, when Dawn Approach takes his unbeaten record to Epsom next month he will be defined as much by the men around him, as by his own radiant brilliance. For he will not be alone in being asked to prove his staying power – or in being sustained, as he does so, by Bolger himself.

No answer to this Approach: Sheikh refuses to comment on doping scandal as he watches Derby contender scoop 2,000 Guineas

Sat, 04 May 2013 23:00:00 GMT

Once Sheikh Mohammed elected to watch Dawn Approach compete in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas, it was inevitable that the topic of the recent doping scandal that has shaken his elite Godolphin racing empire and the sport as a whole would be high on any list of questions. Almost as inevitably, its broaching was the cold spoon in the soufflé, even in the aftermath of the colt's impressive victory.

Sheikh must trust in Dawn of a new Classic approach

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:00:47 GMT

When Sheikh Mohammed bought a 51 per cent stake in Dawn Approach last summer, his decision to race the colt in the livery of Godolphin caused many to wonder. What, if anything, could Godolphin still be said to mean? Little could anyone realise, back then, that the answer might prove far more challenging than the question.

Mile looks making of Moohaajim against unbeaten market leaders

Fri, 03 May 2013 23:00:25 GMT

Betting on the Qipco 2,000 Guineas is so skewed towards the two favourites that neither retains any vestige of value.