Racing Diary: Dettori misses feat repeat by a whisker

When Frankie Dettori rode that 'Magnificent Seven' at Ascot in 1996 he said then that he would find it very difficult indeed to repeat the feat. But he certainly came close at Newmarket last Friday when he rode 5 winners out of 6!

Needless to say the massive crowd lapped up every minute of it and Frankie responded with one of his famous flying dismounts and then proceeded to spray the fans around the winners enclosure with champagne.

Even Chrissie Hynde who was performing after racing that evening with her band The Pretenders was forced to delay her act while Frankie received the plaudits of his adoring fans.

Dettori certainly is an incredible act for he'd arrived at Newmarket by helicopter from a not very successful week at Glorious Goodwood and when he walked into the weighing room he looked as if he'd had a sleep on the helicopter and hadn't quite woken up properly!

If he had had forty winks it certainly made the difference for his riding on Friday night was truly exceptional and the more winners he rode the more he gained in confidence.

There is no doubt the more success Frankie Dettori pumps into himself the better he becomes and by the end of the evening I am certain he could have won on a donkey – such was his dominance.

I remember well his 'Magnificent Seven' at Ascot six years ago and remain certain that none apart from Frankie could have ridden all those seven winners.

There are other world class jockeys and here in Europe they include Michael Kinane, Keiren Fallon and Olivier Peslier but when Frankie's on song he's absolutely red hot.He moves to another level and this is just what he did on Friday.

Of course – and unfortunately for the punters – he can't do it day in and day out but he did show that incredible sparkle 24 hours later when winning the 10 furlong handicap on a horse called Port Moresby.

What made this victory so special apart from the way he came from last to first to win a real thriller on the line was that he helped 257 people win a slice of the Tote Scoop 6.

The Scoop 6 is the popular Saturday bet where for a stake of just £2 you have to nominate all 6 winners of the televised races on Channel 4 and when I called Frankie home on Port Moresby in the 6th and final leg it meant the prize – which hadn't been won for nearly two months – was worth nearly £1,400,000 to the winners.

Divided between 257of them it meant they had each won over £5,000 and that's not bad for an outlay of only £2!

Frankie should have been doing the honours at Ascot this Saturday, leading the Rest of the World Team of Jockeys against their British and Irish rivals in the Blue Square Shergar Cup, but unfortunately for the sponsors and organisers, he will be in Deauville the same day riding Sakhee.

Sakhee was the top rated horse in the world last year and although he disappointed when only third to Street Cry in the Dubai World Cup he has been working brilliantly on the gallops here in the UK.

However there is nothing like a race to find out if he is still as brilliant as he was and that is why Saturday's race in France is very important.

He will certainly need to win and win well if he is to set up a clash with High Chapparal, winner of both the English and Irish Derbies, in the Prix de L'arc de Triomphe in October before flying across the Atlantic to run in the Breeders Cup Classic at Arlington Park in Chicago.

Last year in the Breeders Cup Classic Sakhee was beaten in a thriller by Tiznow but with Tiznow now a stallion his big rival this time is Left Bank.

Left Bank is the horse who beat Godolphin's Street Cry in Saturday night's Whitney Handicap at Saratoga and from where I was watching there were no excuses for Street Cry.

Left Bank who carries the famous blue and orange colours of owner Michael Tabor was able to stay close to a furious pace and when asked to quicken did so in the style of the racehorse of the highest class and basically Street Cry couldn't get anywhere near him.

Street Cry will certainly have to improve a lot to have any chance of getting his revenge in the Classic and Sakhee will need to show something special on Saturday in France to show us that he is still one of the world's top racehorses and that he is ready to take on Left Bank.