Count Harry Davies out after that effort.....one side to the other and back again

Dettori misses out on Gosden mounts at Newmarket as Doyle and Havlin called up
Frankie Dettori will not be riding for John Gosden on Saturday
Frankie Dettori will not be riding for John Gosden on Saturday
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By David Milnes, Newmarket correspondent
UPDATED 2:17PM, JUN 23 2022
 
Frankie Dettori will not be riding for trainers John and Thady Gosden at Newmarket on Saturday, despite being in action for Ralph Beckett on the card, after losing the mounts on Sunray Major and Stowell.

Dettori has ridden Sunray Major, a half-brother to Kingman, in all bar one of his eight starts but has been replaced by James Doyle for the Group 3 House of Cavani Criterion Stakes (3.15).

Stowell, whom Dettori rode at Royal Ascot last week, will be partnered by Robert Havlin, who also rides Mimikyu for the Gosdens at Newmarket. Dettori has one ride on Lezoo in the Listed Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Fillies' Stakes for trainer Ralph Beckett.

The absence of Dettori on any Gosden-trained runners comes a week after a public outburst by John Gosden following the defeat of Stradivarius in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.

Gosden had initially lamented the tactics employed by Dettori in dropping back through the field and having to switch wide in the straight on Stradivarius having been short of room. In response to the defeat, the eight-year-old's owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen said: "You can't blame the horse here."


Frankie Dettori was criticised for his ride on Stradivarius (right) in last week's Gold Cup
Frankie Dettori was criticised for his ride on Stradivarius (right) in last week's Gold Cup
Alex Livesey (Getty Images)
The former champion trainer then doubled down on his criticism of Dettori the following day, while also criticising the rider's attitude after the Gold Cup, with the jockey also beaten on Saga in the Britannia Stakes and Reach For The Moon in the Hampton Court Stakes for the Queen.

Speaking after Dettori guided Inspiral to a wide-margin win in the Coronation Stakes, Gosden said: "Our hero overcomplicated it yesterday and I was clear in my definition of that. I think it's right to say what you think. It's over, it's past, it's finished and we move on.

"You can't keep looking back. You discuss it, you deal with it and you move on. These are horses; they need your full attention and not wandering around with your lip down. You just get on with it.

"The great thing is Stradivarius is still in good form and Saga – who should have won – as far as he's concerned did win."

The Racing Post has approached John and Thady Gosden and Frankie Dettori for comment.

Hollie has a retainer

Frankie might have gotten away with the G.C. loss if he had looked at all up for the next race which was Saga.  His attitude pre-stalling was terrible, even Luke Harvey commented on it, and Saga should have won on paper and on course.  He left it far too far out of its ground.  Gosden clearly was desperate to give her maj a winner and his anger is easy to understand. 
I said at the time that something looked not quite right with Dettori and a mate of mine made a very salient comment when he suggested that there must be a doubt as to his hard, race-riding fitness with having so very few rides nowadays.  At 50 it has to be a factor.
Good luck to him anyway.  He's been brilliant for racing and has been brilliant for Gosden, who should be grateful for all the successes he has steered into his winning enclosure.

Good point.  But it remains to be seen if he retires or not.

Anyone bar "Benny"

Classic stables want classic jockeys and of these four Curtis and Tudhope look the most likely.  One thing is for sure the Gosdens need to get it absolutely right because their future Gp1 success depends upon the man on top being the best on each and every day.  They'll surely not take on an apprentice however talented they may be.

It won't an apprentice. I'd think James Doyle would be his first choice. The Kingman days were some great days for them both. Would he be willing to leave Appleby though?

If it really came to the job of number one for Gosden being up for grabs and I hope it’s not; I would go for Holly. I am sure her retainer would not stand in her way. It would be so good for racing. And she is simply an excellent rider.

Problem with that Mick is the best might already have a mount on the day...

Was Fortune his previous before Dettori

rankie Dettori will not be riding for John and Thady Gosden at Newmarket on Saturday.

While the Italian will be at HQ to ride the Ralph Beckett-trained Lezoo in the Listed Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Fillies’ Stakes, owned by his friend Marc Chan, his name does not appear alongside two Gosden-trained runners on the card.

Having ridden both Sunray Major and Stowel for the majority of their careers, the former will be the mount of James Doyle in the Criterion Stakes with Robert Havlin on the latter in the Fred Archer Stakes.

The news comes after a testing Royal Ascot meeting for the Gosdens and Dettori.

Dettori came in for pointed criticism from Gosden senior following his ride on Stradivarius in the Gold Cup, and in the next race when the Queen’s Saga failed by a head to catch Thesis in the Britannia Stakes.

While it is not unusual for Dettori to miss the midweek action, he was expected to pick up where he left off this weekend.

Dettori’s manager Peter Burrell told the PA news agency: “We’re in the dark and searching for answers like everybody else.”

Gosden helped get Dettori’s career back on track following his split with Godolphin and the pair have enjoyed tremendous success.

The likes of Enable, Stradivarius, Golden Horn and Palace Pier have all helped keep Dettori at the top table, and on Friday the pair struck in the Coronation Stakes with Inspiral.

Betfair have opened a book on who will be the next retained rider at Clarehaven Stables, should Dettori be replaced.

Having partnered Nashwa to success in the Prix de Diane for the Gosdens on Sunday, Hollie Doyle has been installed as favourite at 4-11 ahead of James Doyle (no relation) and Colin Keane at 7-1.

“Off the back of reports that Frankie Dettori won’t be riding any of the Gosden runners in Newmarket, we have offered betting on who would replace him as stable jockey should the Calrehaven team wish to do so,” said Betfair spokesman Barry Orr.

“With John Gosden having spoken so effusively about Hollie Doyle and her considerable talent on more than one occasion, she is a red-hot favourite to land the plum job that would see her and her husband, Tom Marquand, become the first power couple of Newmarket.

“Irish champion Colin Keane is also an interesting proposition, but it could take a lot to lure him away from Ger Lyons.”

Robert ‘Rab’ Havlin has developed into an accomplished horseman and a key figure at John Gosden’s stable in Newmarket

By Julian Muscat 06 July 2016
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Patience reaps its rewards, never more so than in the case of Robert Havlin. For many years a caterpillar, he has emerged from his chrysalis to take flight. The jockey who once seemed permanently grounded is now stretching his wings, enjoying the vista from on high. It is a sight many thought would never come his way.

It is all the more rewarding for the fact Havlin, 42, is approaching the career veteran stage. Most of the journeyman apprentices he rode with two decades ago have been and gone. Youth’s impetuousness has given way to measured appreciation. Life is thus all the sweeter for one able to appreciate it in a way that once would have been beyond him.

The Scotsman has, in fact, been posting decent numbers for some time now. Last year was his best yet, with 73 winners from more than 500 rides. But his metamorphosis came into sharper focus recently at Royal Ascot, where he rode his first winner aboard Ardad, trained by John Gosden, in the Windsor Castle Stakes. It took him a few days to realise the significance of the achievement.

“Everyone in the yard was buzzing and I really felt that,” he says. “Obviously I felt good myself; I hadn’t ridden one before and I was aware of it, but seeing all those happy faces made me realise how special it was.”

Havlin enjoyed it all the more for having friends around him with which to share the moment. Companionship is something he has always savoured, although in truth, it was nearly his undoing in his early years.

To appreciate this, you have to rewind the clock 20 years, when Havlin was the stable apprentice at Manton. Peter Chapple-Hyam’s successful tenure was coming to an end and there was discord among the staff that the best of patron Robert Sangster’s racehorses were being sold off for profit. In these circumstances, to have a pub within the grounds of Manton’s sprawling acres was well-intentioned but misguided. Havlin well remembers the legacy inherited by Gosden in late 1999, when he succeeded Chapple-Hyam at the storied estate.

“Some of the lads would be drunk when they came into work on a Monday morning and they were already on their last warning,” he recalls. “They knew John’s good side so they’d go into his office and say: ‘Guv’nor, I think I have a drink problem.’ And John would say: ‘OK mate, well done for admitting it. Now let’s get you some counselling to help you back on your feet.’”

I used to be the first one in the pub, so I always got on with the lads. I was enjoying life too much

Havlin maintains he was never that bad. “I think there were times when John wanted to say to me I needed some help, but I got a bit older and wiser and helped myself,” he relates. “I used to be the first one in the pub, so I always got on with the lads. I was enjoying life too much, I think.”

Gosden’s recollections are broadly similar, although he remembers their initial encounter with particular clarity. “The first time I met him, his BMW was lying on its side in a hedge,” Gosden relates with a chuckle. “He’d climbed out of the passenger side and I remember telling him it was best to leave the car where it was at that time of the night. Like a lot of young people, he had his wild side. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

Nevertheless, nights of revelry served to make Havlin lose focus at a critical stage in his apprenticeship. He started promisingly enough, riding 32 winners in 1996 and 15 in each of the next two years, but quickly tapered away.

“I never actually rode out my claim,” he reflects. “I was four winners away from it, but by then I’d lost a bit of interest. I went through those wild years and didn’t really get my head around it for a while afterwards.”

Havlin loved Manton. He relished the embrace of Chapple-Hyam’s gregarious regime. He felt part of a family he never really had; his parents divorced before he was three years old. He also cherished the paternal influence Gosden exerted on his rudderless life, so when Gosden announced he was moving to Newmarket in 2006, Havlin sensed the ground shifting under his feet.

“The boss told me he wasn’t in a position to offer me a job, but that if I ever moved to Newmarket, I should give him a call,” Havlin reflects.
After some soul-searching, he decided to up sticks. He was somewhat suspicious of change, partly because he felt comfortable in the Manton community, but Gosden was true to his word. The change made Havlin realise opportunity was slipping away.

“The thing about the boss is that he really cares about his staff,” Havlin says. “I’d seen that at Manton; sometimes I used to think that he cared too much, if anything. But when someone puts their neck on the line for you, you don’t want to let them down.

“I really felt that strongly,” he continues. “I was on the mat a few times in my younger days and I’ve had my bollockings on the way back from the races. The boss would say the famous phrase: ‘Be in my office at 12 o’clock,’ but that was a good thing. You realised he cared about you off the track as well as on it.”


Robert Havlin: hard work on the gallops has been rewarded with quality rides on the racecourse

This, of course, was a two-way street. In return for his patience, Gosden received the counsel of a fine judge, a rider with the rare ability to relax headstrong horses, not to mention those difficult, cussed, troubled thoroughbreds who have no prospect of fulfilling their potential without learning to cooperate.

Havlin acquired this valuable skillset in his mid-teens, when his mother dragged him out of bed early on Saturday mornings and took him to John Wilson’s yard at Cree Lodge, in the shadow of Ayr racecourse.

“It was funny, really,” Havlin says. “My father also wanted to be a jockey but he never told me about it. He spent a year with Dave Thom but then went back to Scotland because he was homesick.”

Havlin joined Wilson full-time on leaving school, by which time he’d already experienced things other wannabe jockeys would rarely encounter. Together with a few kids from his council estate, he spent evenings after school working for the local horse dealer, Alex White.

“He had coloured ponies arriving from Ireland twice a week and we would break them in one day,” he says. “I had a good few slaps from Alex. All the kids thought I was crazy back then but it probably stood me in good stead.”

Whatever lessons he learnt, Havlin has since morphed into a pivotal member of Gosden’s staff. He is instrumental in taking much of Clarehaven’s nascent talent forward towards their races. He rode Golden Horn in his work ahead of last year’s Dante and told Frankie Dettori he was aboard the wrong horse (Jack Hobbs) in that race. Ask him for the best he had ridden and he tempers his reply in nominating Kingman. “It’s probably because I rode him every day,” he says. “He was a phenomenal horse; he had everything.”

Havlin always bestrode top-class horses at home but he is now riding a better calibre of horse on the racecourse. He has long since shed the tag of capable deputy, as evidenced by a Royal Ascot triumph that jostles for CV space with his winning rides in the Derby Italiano and Oaks d’Italia, not to mention a smattering of Pattern-race triumphs in Britain.

Yet he remains at heart a team player, one happy to defer to Dettori on the big days even if he might have done most of the legwork. He admits there have been times when others have encouraged him to loosen his ties with Gosden in the quest for greater personal recognition. The prospect has never appealed.

“I like being part of something,” he says. “There’s not a lot of loyalty in this game and you can’t expect a different person to be loyal to you every year. You see kids today going to stables and not getting rides, then hopping over to someone else, and again the next year. How are they going to cope when they have a bad year?

The boss really cares about his staff. Sometimes I used to think he cared too much, if anything

“Sometimes you might wonder why you’re not jocked up on some of John’s horses and then, when they don’t run well, you think: ‘I’m glad I wasn’t on those.’ But that’s John, trying to protect you. When you’re younger you don’t see it that way. It’s only when you sit back and look at the big picture that you realise it.

“Loyalty is something you build over years and years, and I just love where I am now,” he continues. “As long as it keeps going, it’s more than enough for me. The top jockeys go to big meetings like Royal Ascot under a lot of pressure, whereas I don’t. Ardad was a 20-1 chance. I’d love to win a Classic one day – and you never know, that might just happen, but the main things is that I’m working for a great boss.”

He is also in a great place in his private life. Towards the end of the year he will point himself down a straight course with pews either side of him instead of running rails. He plans to marry Kelly, his partner of seven years, and with whom he has two daughters: India, aged 4, and Lucia, 2.

For Havlin, the emotional journey is almost complete. All that remains is for him to savour the remainder of a professional career rendered all the more rewarding for it coming to him so late in life. His is a refreshing story within the debris of shattered dreams so prevalent among those for whom success came too soon.

Dettiri is in Sardinia on a weeks holiday when any young jockey would not dare go on holiday when in the peak of the season and riding out beckons, sad to see the falling out they had some great winners together

Hollie even!

Betfair have made Hollie Doyle their odds-on favourite to be John and Thady Gosden's next number one rider in response to the speculation around Frankie Dettori's role with the Clarehaven operation.

Doyle, who became the first female rider to win a European Classic that holds Group 1 status when riding Nashwa to victory for the Gosdens in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly last weekend, is 4-11 to be next to get the coveted gig.

Betfair head of racing PR Barry Orr said: "With John Gosden having spoken so effusively about Hollie Doyle and her considerable talent on more than one occasion, she is a red-hot favourite to land the plum job.

"Irish champion jockey Colin Keane is also an interesting proposition, but it could take a lot to lure him away from Ger Lyons."

'She's hugely talented'

Gosden spoke highly of Doyle after she guided Nashwa to Prix de Diane glory at Chantilly last weekend.

After the race, Gosden said: "The owner-breeder of Nashwa, Imad Al Sagar, said to me two or three years ago he had a few jockeys he was looking at and wanted to retain one.

"He showed me the list and I said 'Hollie Doyle', and I know other people would back me on that.

"She's hugely talented and horses run for her. She's incredibly meticulous and hard-working and she analyses things properly."

Frankie Dettori and John Gosden timeline: the highs and lows

John and Thady Gosden's next retained rider

Betfair: 4-11 Hollie Doyle, 7 James Doyle, Colin Keane, 14 David Egan, 16 Rab Havlin, 20 William Buick, Tom Marquand

It would be great to see Hollie with chances in all the big races. I hope it goes that way.

Gosden is a friend of Matt Hancock so bad behaviour and lack of manners can be expected

How about James McDonald, done brilliant at Ascot and in his interview dropped big hints he would be up for a stint in the UK. Agree about the shabby treatment A-T, bad form to sort your employees out live on ITV as well.

And frankie has always been a pillar of society ??,, I remember him publicly criticising a another jockey after a race a few times.

Lucky to get a second chance imho and he should be thankful of that