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Cazoo Derby: Frankie Dettori booking boosts Piz Badile chance
Frankie Dettori’s booking for Piz Badile in the Cazoo Derby is a vote of confidence for the colt – and not only from the jockey.
It wasn’t a huge surprise when connections opted to replace former Irish champion apprentice Gavin Ryan for the big day, as promising and talented as he is, but when the call with a County Tipperary dialling code came through on the mobile I’d be pretty sure Frankie expected Aidan, not Donnacha, O’Brien to be on the other end.
He’s been the go-to man for the Ballydoyle team in recent years once Ryan Moore has made his choice, partnering Point Lonsdale and Tuesday for them in the QIPCO 2000 and 1000 Guineas respectively earlier this month.
He was waiting in the wings for the spare Epsom ride last year only for ‘the lads’ to shock everyone and rely only on Bolshoi Ballet. They won’t be single-handed this year.
For as good as Stone Age, clearly Moore’s intended ride, looked in the Leopardstown Derby Trial Stakes, they need strength in numbers with Desert Crown underlining his rich potential in the Dante at York. They also have three other trial runners to take aim with.
Dettori on Changingoftheguard, impressive all-the-way winner of the Chester Vase, made perfect sense for many. He's the same price in the market as Piz Badile and appeals as the sort to glide around Epsom.
The demands of the Roodee held no terrors for the willing Star Of India either in the Dee Stakes, while United Nations made light work of the camber and sweeping left-handed turn of Lingfield. All conceivable rides for the veteran Italian.
But instead he’s on a colt who has been sent straight to Epsom after winning the Ballysax, a trial that has been the springboard for many Ballydoyle stars over the years. Longfield, Donnacha’s base, used to be home to David Wachman for his own successful career. Now it houses horses with top Coolmore pedigrees for a new tenant.
Piz Badile is owned by Flaxman Stables, who have partnered with Coolmore a few times in recent years, notably in Magna Grecia, winner of the 2000 Guineas in 2019 and now standing at a fee of €17,500 in the stud next to Ballydoyle.
They also had Circus Maximus in association with the Magnier, Tabor and Smith axis, a colt Dettori rode for Aidan O’Brien to finish sixth behind Anthony Van Dyck in the 2019 Derby.
It’s hard to believe his booking for this year's race was a case of Donnacha beating his dad to the punch rather than a team decision. They have evaluated the situation and the horses for the first Saturday in June and decided that Dettori’s talents are best utilised on Piz Badile.
It’s not that the jockey has an outstanding Derby record. He’s won it twice on Authorized (2007) and Golden Horn (2015), but you’re getting a big-race, big-day pedigree second to none in the current weighing room.
It’s why the English King team jocked off Tom Marquand (something that would be rather more difficult to do nowadays) when their colt was jostling for favouritism in 2020. In the end Ed Walker’s charge finished fifth with Marquand second to Serpentine aboard Khalifa Sat.
Then last year, on the eve of the final field being declared, team John Leeper swooped for Dettori’s unexpectedly available services, leaving Adam Kirby without a ride. Not for long, he was snapped up by Godolphin to replace Oisin Murphy on Adayar given his previous knowledge of the colt, and the rest, as they say, is history.
So in modern times the horse picked up by the jockey replaced by Dettori, rather than the one ridden by the great man himself, has been the angle.
It won’t be in 2022. And maybe, just for once, those turning to the Italian for his big-race nous may well get what they’re desperate for.
Piz Badile would be a first Derby winner in the famous Stavros Niarchos silks and of course a first for Donnacha O’Brien in his third season with a licence.
He’s not your usual start-up trainer. According to Horses In Training he has a string of 62 for the new campaign, 40 of them two-year-olds, all with big pedigrees and big owners from the stud farm down the lane.
But it would still be some achievement were he to strike gold at Epsom so early in his career and evoke memories of Secreto beating El Gran Senor in an epic battle in 1984, leaving Vincent O’Brien to seek his own son David afterwards and offer a congratulatory handshake.
The trainer may be young but he’s turned to one of the most experienced, battle-hardened and coolest drivers around for the pressure-cooker that is Epsom on Derby day.
It might be a match made in heaven.
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