? Two younger jockeys to be given equal opportunities
? No Oaks or Derby ride at Epsom for the Italian
Frankie Dettori is no longer Godolphin's principal jockey. It has taken the racing world some time to digest this but the message has finally got home with the booking of Micka�l Barzalona to ride the team's sole runner in this weekend's Epsom Classics and it was confirmed on Wednesday by Godolphin's spokesman, Simon Crisford.
"Rides will be split across the board," he said in reference to the team's three jockeys, Dettori, Barzalona and Silvestre de Sousa. "They will all get equal opportunities. Frankie has to share the cake and he understands that."
Crisford discussed the signing of Barzalona and De Sousa in Dubai in March, when he said: "It's not like there's going to be a pecking order." He was understood to mean that the others would compete for second-string rides behind the Italian but his true meaning now becomes clear.
"We brought in two new, young jockeys and it is obviously important to give them opportunities," he said on Wednesday. "For years Frankie was our only retained jockey. We had other people who would regularly ride for us but it was an informal arrangement. These two jockeys are formally retained.
"I thought we made it reasonably clear at the time that, if any one of them struck up a winning combination with a certain horse, the chances are they are going to stay on that horse. Certainly that's Frankie's understanding of the situation."
And so it is that Dettori will watch Friday's Oaks from the Epsom weighing room while Barzalona sports the famous royal blue colours on Kailani. Dettori won on her last year but, when she reappeared this month, he rode another Godolphin horse that was marginally shorter in the betting.
Barzalona won on Kailani "and we decided to let him keep the ride," Crisford says. Dettori's involvement at Epsom will be confined to three handicaps. On Saturday, since Godolphin have no Derby runner, he will be at Haydock. It will be the first time since 1991 that he has not ridden in the premier Classic when healthy.
Few would suggest that, even at the age of 41, Dettori is not capable of riding as well as ever, though his strike-rate of 14% this year is six points below last year's. Crisford says the main reason for bringing in the two younger men was an increase in the number of Godolphin runners.
"I think we're having more runners than ever before. We've certainly got more horses. We've got two trainers approaching maximum numbers, 350 horses between them, much more than when it was just Saeed [bin Suroor] on his own."
It is not the case that Dettori is being prepared for imminent retirement. "He's got plenty of years left in him," Crisford says. "I know he's said publicly that he wants to keep going for at least another five years. So long as he's healthy and fit, I don't see why he wouldn't continue riding for us. And in five or 10 years' time these other jockeys will have gained some of the experience that Frankie's got.
"It's working out well at the moment and I don't think we've had any complaints. We are a big stable, a little short on quality just now but quantity is not an issue."
Ray Cochrane, who is agent to both Dettori and Barzalona, says the Italian has made no hint to him about being unhappy with the new regime and reports that the two are "pals". He explains another dynamic behind who gets which rides.
"Frankie goes where Frankie wants," Cochrane says. "You take Monday, a horse we run at Redcar is possibly a lot better than what we'll run at Leicester but there's no point asking Frankie to go to Redcar.
"He'll tell me, 'I'm not driving up and back again to ride something that's probably going to be fourth.' He'd rather stay closer to home and his family. So Micka�l will ride at Redcar, Frankie will ride at Leicester and people may think, 'Oh, Micka�l's on the better horses. But that's not what's happening.'"
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/may/30/frankie-dettori-mickael-barzalona-godolphin
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