It rather summed up Frankie Dettori’s frustrating first day at his final Royal Ascot that it closed with him receiving a nine-day ban for careless riding.
The fact that the offence occurred while the Italian was aboard the King’s horse, Saga, in the Wolferton Stakes will only have added yet further frustration.
That ban, of course, will be administered once this meeting is in the rearview mirror and in truth Dettori was not all that far away from getting at least one check in the win column.
Three seconds, including one agonisingly near-miss on Inspiral in the Queen Anne, suggested the gods where just not his side yesterday
Yet the show must go on and only the bravest of punters would count out a reprisal of sorts from Dettori this afternoon. He has four rides, all with decent chances, including Reach For The Moon who he rides for the King.
As was the case with Saga yesterday, a success for that combination would bring the house down yet whether the most competitive handicap of the week is the likeliest of winning battlegrounds remains to be seen.
Elsewhere on day one, Hollie Doyle made yet more Royal Ascot history in becoming the first female jockey to win a Group 1 at the meeting, while Aidan O’Brien surpassed Sir Michael Stoute as the meeting the winningest trainer after Paddington pulverised the opposition in the St James’s Palace Stakes.
At first glance this afternoon’s offering may lack the glitz of day one’s Group 1 smorgasbord but the action should be no less compelling.
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes (4.20) takes centre stage as the day’s only top-level contest. Along with a trio of Group 2s and arguably the most competitive handicap of the week in the Royal Hunt Cup.
With the King and Queen in attendance once again this promises to be another unmissable day in Berkshire and luckily for you Telegraph Sport is here to guide through all the afternoon’s action.
