SUPERSTAR stayer Stradivarius is finished for the season – and maybe for good.
Owner Bjorn Nielsen now needs to decide whether to bring him back for another campaign as a nine-year-old next spring. It is surely unlikely.
Stradivarius, the superstar stayer so closely linked with Frankie Dettori, is unlikely to run again this year… and maybe ever again with his future up in the air
The three-time Gold Cup hero missed York’s Ebor Festival and John Gosden is running out of time after Stradivarius skipped the Doncaster Cup, too.
The Prix du Cadran in France and Ascot’s Long Distance Cup on Champions Day are his only feasible options but all hasn’t been rosey at home.
His fairytale swansong suddenly appears a lot harder to write. If it is written at all.
However, in truth, the Strad fairytale ended the day Frankie Dettori was jocked off.
An ill-fated ride in the Ascot Gold Cup which saw Strad come a fast-finishing third to Kyprios led to Dettori and Strad’s trainer John Gosden taking a ‘sabbatical’.
The legendary trainer had been unhappy with the Italian’s commitment levels.
Their face-to-face meeting came after Dettori had returned from a post-Ascot holiday in Italy.
In that time, Nielsen slated Dettori’s tactics in the race, saying, ‘for some reason he went and did what he did’.
The break was to prove short-term, however, with the world’s most famous jockey recalled just 11 days later.
Crucially, though, that Ascot race was to be the final time Dettori rode Stradivarius.
Andrea Atzeni got the ride on the eight-year-old in the Goodwood Cup where they finished a neck second to Kyprios in a thriller.
Should that prove to be Kyprios’ final race then it will go down as a cracker – and possibly a handing of the baton to Aidan O’Brien’s new star.
Kyprios beat Stradivarius in what may end up being his final two runs.
His last win came in the Yorkshire Cup Stakes at York in May – a track he loves.
With 20 wins from 35 races, Stradivarius has earned just shy of £3.5million on the track and cemented his legacy as an iconic racehorse.
Did you miss our previous article…
https://www.sportingexcitement.com/horse-racing/winners-dont-feel-the-same-now-rachael-blackmore-breaks-silence-in-first-victory-after-jack-de-bromheads-death/
