Lester Piggott backs Frankie Dettori to break run of Melbourne Cup flops on Almandin
LEGENDARY British jockey Lester Piggott has urged punters to overlook Frankie Dettori’s chequered Melbourne Cup record, insisting the Italian is ready to strike on favourite Almandin.
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LEGENDARY British jockey Lester Piggott has urged punters to overlook Frankie Dettori’s chequered Melbourne Cup record, insisting the flamboyant Italian is ready to strike on favourite Almandin.
Aware of Dettori’s Flemington frustrations and failures, Piggott said: “He’s been second a couple of times on awful horses. One of them (Max Dynamite) was a jumper.
“This time he’s on a good horse. Don’t worry, he can do it.”
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For all his phenomenal northern hemisphere success, Dettori polarises Australian punters.
He was second on Godolphin’s Central Park in 1999 and again runner-up two years ago on Max Dynamite in a ride condemned by stewards, drawing a month ban and $20,000 fine for late-race carnage.
Regarded as the greatest jockey of all-time, Piggott says Dettori and Ryan Moore remain the finest two jockeys in the UK.
“Dettori is a very good jockey,” Piggott said after visiting Racing Victoria’s apprentices’ school. “His record shows that.”
After a long and frustrating string of failures, Frankie Dettori believes fate — and Almandin — are poised to finally deliver Melbourne Cup success.
The globetrotting Italian is yet to add Flemington’s feature to a bulging collection of international Group 1 scalps, but Dettori says he has never had a better chance of success.
“I’ve been there a few times with the potential favourite who might not have travelled well or pulled up lame,” he told Sky Sports radio.
“I didn’t have the best of luck in the race, a couple of seconds on outsiders.
“This time it’s my real opportunity to perhaps break my taboo and what a chance with a friend of mine with Mr (Lloyd) Williams with one of the favourites for the race.
“I’m really excited to be honest with you.”
Dettori beat a host of riders to secure the mount on Almandin when Damien Oliver was banned for 20 meetings for improper riding and then lost a subsequent appeal.
“I got the ride by special circumstances. Damien got suspended,” Dettori said.
“Lloyd Williams, I know over two decades from the first time I came to Melbourne in ‘93, he took me under his wing and we became good friends.
“I rode Order Of St George for him in the Arc last year when I finished third.
“When I got the call, I was delighted for many reasons obviously.
“He’s a horse with a chance, he won last year.
“Also my wife’s family is from Australia so the Melbourne Cup to the Dettori household and it’s one of the best races in the world.
“Unfortunately I haven’t won so this is another chance.”
Dettori finished second two years ago on Max Dynamite but was suspended for a month and fined $20,000 for causing severe interference with a chaotic ride.
He last year was bagged for giving Wicklow Brave a wide run in the Cup before tailing out to a distant 22nd.
“Somebody told me I’ve rode the Melbourne Cup 16 times so 16 times, occasions to see what a great race it is,” he said.
“It has grown to huge stature around the world. It is watched the around world.
“I’ve come close a couple of times so it will be a dream come true if I can put my name on this Cup.
“Almandin has won the Melbourne Cup so he doesn’t need any introduction.
“He travels well and he stays the distance. Of course, he carries more weight this year but he’s been there and done it. You can’t really put too many negatives on the horse.
“He’s on top of the betting and if he’s runs this way, he’s going to be thereabouts.”
Dettori, 46, has endured a rollercoaster season in Europe.
A fractured shoulder sidelined Dettori for five weeks, forcing him out of Royal Ascot.
But he returned to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, notching a ninth Group 1 for the season.
Dettori will ride at the Breeders’ Cup meeting in the US before arriving in Melbourne on Monday.
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