How is Kieran Shoemark doing as number one rider for John and Thady Gosden?

How do you replace a jockey like Frankie Dettori?

You don't, in short. I guess you thank your lucky stars for the opportunity to be called number one rider at one of the best-equipped training establishment in the country, get your head down, work hard and look to take the chances when they present themselves.

And - from the outside looking in anyway - that's just what Kieran Shoemark has been doing since it was confirmed he'd be taking over as principal jockey for John and Thady Gosden towards the end of last year, having done plenty of the groundwork as Frankie's understudy, covering the Monday to Friday fare primarily, long before the main man's eventual departure.

Nobody will have had a more precise awareness of the size of the task in front of Shoemark than himself. Dettori was, and still is, far more than a top-class jockey and more than a top-class sportsmen, too, given his 35-year rise through the public consciousness thanks not only to his continued excellence in the saddle but various advertising campaigns, magazine features and television roles including A Question Of Sport, I’m A Celebrity, Loose Women, The Wheel and Top Gear, among others. In 2001 he was awarded an honorary MBE.

With Dettori busy continuing his career in America, at least Shoemark doesn’t have the ignominy of the Italian peering down on him from the grandstands and casting knowing glances, à la Fergie at Old Trafford, or imposing his personal opinions on the situation through TV punditry, with shades of Harry Enfield’s You Don’t Wanna Do It Like That! character and his Match Of The Day sketch.

It hasn’t all been brilliant for Shoemark this spring, that's fair to say, but it wasn't ever really going to be. Gosden has never won the 2000 Guineas, for instance, and rarely tries these days either (no runner for the past five years), while their Derby runner God's Window went off at 33/1 having been well stuffed in two recognised trials.

Not even Frankie could conjure them out of thin air.

As for the three-year-old fillies, it is typically a matter of biding their time and seeing what comes to the fore. Granted, the yard has been responsible for four relatively recent Oaks winners, but clearly no Taghrooda or Enable lurking among this season’s Clarehaven crop, and Anapurna and Soul Sister had won the big races at Lingfield and York respectively en route to Epsom glory.

Danielle’s third in Lingfield's Oaks Trial Fillies' Stakes was just about the best the stable could muster this time around and they were empty handed at Epsom last Friday, following Siyola's well-held third at Newbury, Regal Jubilee being turned over in the Height Of Fashion and impressive Pretty Polly winner Friendly Soul badly hanging her chance away 10 days later in the Musidora at York.

Finishing last of seven on an 8/11 favourite at York wouldn’t have sat too kindly with Dettori, but Shoemark won’t have particularly enjoyed the experience either. “I couldn’t steer her,” he said afterwards. You can’t really argue with that, can you?

But there are - predictably - dark corners of social media that like to play the blame game and one or two comments were surfacing on X following Friendly Soul's waywardness, and after Beeley unshipped Shoemark at the start of her intended comeback run at Newbury.

A more rational approach to assessing the 27-year-old’s start in the Gosden hot-seat would be to look at his relatively modest 13% strike-rate (7-52) on turf for the yard so far in 2024, but that clearly doesn’t tell the whole story either, not least as he's had 11 seconds and eight thirds in that period.

All things being equal, Shoemark will soon be ticking over at 20% and above once the stable really gets rolling. And I think that’s the key point here – the Gosdens can go on the occasional early-season winning spree, but essentially don’t get going full-tilt until June, and they nearly always finish the season strongly.

Was Shoemark in any way at fault for Emily Upjohn failing to follow-up last year’s Coronation Cup success, or was she just not on a going day again, or even a little under-cooked in her prep work for Epsom? And when will they stop running Inspiral on a straight course, given her apparent preference for running around a bend?

It’s hoped the second question might be answered at Royal Ascot this month, the daughter of Frankel crying out for a shot at the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes, and maybe Emily Upjohn will indeed strip much fitter in the Hardwicke too, or the Pretty Polly Stakes (the Curragh version), depending on where they choose to go with her next.

A month is a long time in racing and Shoemark will know full well this is a big one for himself and the whole Gosden team – even Dettori was offered a “sabbatical” after things went pear-shaped in June 2022 – but there is so much to look forward to and some big days ahead with the likes of Lead Artist, Theory Of Tides, Sardinian Warrior and presumably a first competitive spin on Duke Of Cambridge favourite Laurel, last seen finishing down the field after hanging her chance away when well-fancied for the 2023 Lockinge. These things happen, you see.

Her rider that day bounced back famously well and, given time, three-time Group 1-winner Shoemark, viewed as a long-term project rather than some sort of quick fix, will no doubt prove the odd doubter wrong - this season and beyond.

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