PAT HEALY: This week Pat comments on Frankie Dettori’s decision to ride in Deauville, and makes a shrewd point about the difference in ground conditions between racing in Ireland and elsewhere.
Frankie’s French decision
It was clearly a pretty tough decision for Frankie Dettori last week on whether to ride in France or at York. The Ebor Festival is one of the big summer ones and he’ll obviously be sad to miss it, but he won a Group 1 and Group 2 over the weekend at Deauville so it looks like a pretty good decision! Frankie is box office and he gets people talking so it’s not ideal for him to be missing the meeting but he would have spoken to John Gosden at length and they would have come to a conclusion on what was the best decision. John clearly thought both Mishriff (pictured) and Palace Pier had very strong chances and so that proved, so you can’t say Frankie made the wrong decision.
From a domestic point of view, York might feel a touch hard done by that they haven’t got someone of Frankie’s calibre riding, but as I said, he had a decision to make and it looks to have paid off. Also if there’s ever a year for Frankie not to be at the Ebor Festival then it’s this one with the lack of crowds and the way things are.
Changing tracks
I spoke to a few people who had been at Deauville over the weekend and they said the rain were absolutely atrocious on the run up to the weekend. Apparently people were having to take their shoes and socks off in the car park because the puddles were so bad at the last meeting ahead of the weekend. One thing I did notice was that Deauville have used the same track throughout August and never race on fresh ground. That’s the same case with all the bigger festivals in England too, but it’s a very different story in Ireland. Over here, for every day’s racing each track has fresh ground and I just thought it was interesting that we’re the only country that do that. No-one ever comments on the fact they aren’t racing on fresh ground and that’s a bit surprising as you’d think they’d want the best possible conditions.
The Curragh will have had four meetings in August and for each day they’ll have effectively a fresh track which I think entitles the clerk of the course and all the ground staff to an immense amount of credit. They’re producing top-quality racetracks again and again which is only to the benefit of the sport.
The Ebor Festival
I’ll be sad to miss York’s Ebor Festival this year. I’ve been going for 20 years and it’s a brilliant meeting to be a part of. Everybody loves York – it’s such a fun place to be and the atmosphere is fantastic. It’s a great place to socialise and more often than not you end up in the 80s bar! There’s a great Italian restaurant not too far away called Delrio’s which I’ve been to numerous times after racing.
It’s a great social affair but the racing is top-class too and this year looks no different with the Juddmonte International looking particularly interesting. It’s a real shame I won’t be there, but hopefully I’ll be able to head back in 2021 because it’s one of the ones you look forward to.
