There is a scrolling electronic billboard a few hundred metres from Brighton station, positioned to catch the eye of tens of thousands of day-trippers heading home from the beach, and an ad for next month’s Glorious Goodwood festival is currently on the rotation. Amid the scenes of partying racegoers, photo-finishes and the track’s breathtaking downland setting, just one current jockey gets the honour of a snapshot all to himself and it is, of course, the only one who needs no introduction. Frankie Dettori shifts tickets for the races like no one else can.
Unless his “sabbatical” from the John Gosden yard is more like a long weekend, however, Dettori’s chances at Glorious Goodwood will be more limited than anyone could have imagined just a few weeks ago. The great stayer Stradivarius, who could well be making the final appearance of his career in the Goodwood Cup, will presumably have a fresh pair of hands holding the reins, and so too will Inspiral, the one bright spot in an otherwise miserable Royal meeting for the jockey, if she heads down to Sussex for the Nassau Stakes.
