Soul Sister (11-4) swooped to victory to provide Frankie Dettori with a fairytale success on his final ride in the Betfred Oaks at Epsom on Friday afternoon.
The popular Italian jockey, who will retire from riding at the end of the season, landed a seventh victory in the Fillies' Classic as the John and Thady Gosden-trained three-year-old ran out a superb winner at Epsom. Settled in rear under Dettori off the pace set by outsider Sea Of Roses, Soul Sister – who had won the Musidora Stakes at York last month – made a menacing move after the turn round Tattenham Corner. Under Ryan Moore, the Aidan O’Brien-trained 5-6 favourite Savethelastdance – who had won the Listed Weathersby Digital Solutions Cheshire Oaks at last month’s Chester May Festival by an astonishing 22 lengths in soft conditions – also made her move on the inside alongside 40-1 outsider Caernarfon). But Soul Sister was travelling best of the three who drew well clear of the rest of the field on the run to the line. Soul Sister powered down the outside to score by a length-and-three-quarters from Savethelastdance with the Jack Channon-trained Caernarfon – running a mighty race at bid odds – to be a head back in third.
Having won the Group One Coronation Cup on last year's narrow Oaks runner-up Emily Upjohn for the Gosdens earlier in the day at Epsom, Dettori was back in the winner's enclosure performing his famous flying dismount after his magnificent seventh success in the Classic. Dettori first won the Oaks with Balanchine when he was riding for the Godolphin operation in 1994 and also scored with Moonshell the following year. The now 52-year-old landed other successes with Kazzia (2002), on the mighty Enable (2017) and Anapurna (2019) for John Gosden and also aboard the O'Brien-trained Snowfall (2021). And as he has done so many times, he timed his winning run to perfection.
