More Dettori delight as he grabs ninth Gold Cup triumph

Frankie Dettori recorded a fairytale victory on his final Gold Cup ride, with the aptly-named Courage Mon Ami showing plenty of grit to down Coltrane in a titanic battle through the final furlong of the Royal Ascot showpiece.

It was a ninth Gold Cup for the Italian, who will hang up his boots at the end of the year.

Courage Mon Ami was having only his fourth lifetime start, having won his three previous races for John and Thady Gosden.

Stepping up in trip, the 15-2 chance was settled near the back of the pack as Subjectivist, the winner two years ago, made most of the running.

But Dettori took a risk and waited on the rail before sweeping through beaten horses and switching outside Coltrane's withers.

The four-year-old son of Frankel kept finding to beat the 11-4 favourite, who was ridden by Oisin Murphy. Subjectivist stuck on well to finish a gallant third.

"Unbelievable! I thought it was a bridge too far from handicaps, but I had the perfect race," said a jubilant Dettori, who returned to a tremendous reception and even gave the Queen a kiss at the presentation ceremony.

"He's still a baby, but when Coltrane came back he picked up again. I can't hear myself talking!"

He went on: "I didn't expect it. The last five years I had Stradivarius so the pressure was on, this one I thought was a bit of a chancer, coming from handicaps, but John was confident.

"I didn't believe it, but I said to him he's pulled a rabbit out of the hat. He's a great trainer and he does things like that. Sometimes if I don't believe it I just go along with it!

"I rode him cold and it just happened. I got the splits when I wanted to and in fairness he showed a turn of foot.

"In the last half a furlong I couldn't get rid of Oisin and I thought 'no, we've got this far, please keep going!'.

"Nine Gold Cups, what can you say? I'm speechless, to be honest."

On receiving the Gold Cup from The King, he said: “It’s my last year, so this is the only chance I had. It’s pretty emotional. The King is a lovely man and Camilla is lovely. It is an honour to be able to ride for them in other races and to win the Gold Cup and be presented with the trophy by them.”

On taking his children up onto the podium with him, he said: “I said ‘listen, we won the Gold Cup, we can go up there and shake hands with The King’, so it’s a great thrill for them. Now they are old enough to understand. For the last 18 years, they’ve just thought I was a guy on the TV, maybe like Peppa Pig or something! So they really know what I’m doing.”

John Gosden said: “You can't practise two and a half miles at home, but Frankie stayed cool and rode him cool in the dark down the inside, saving every inch. I saw he went to go outside turning into the straight and they said no, go back in, and luckily he managed to wriggle through and found a great run.

"Courage Mon Ami is a lovely horse who was bred by Mr [Anthony] Oppenheimer, who sold him. It costs a great deal of money for English breeders to keep their studs going. He's a gelding by Frankel, he's unbeaten, but he's gone from the all-weather to Goodwood to here, so full achievement to the horse."

Asked to reflect upon the fact that it was Courage Mon Ami's fourth start, Gosden said: "I don't think I'll try it again. Richard Brown [bloodstock agent] has done a very clever job – he was asked to find horses to come to Royal Ascot [for the owners Wathnan Racing]. They are hard to buy but both horses he found, Gregory and Courage Mon Ami, were owner/breeder horses. The costs of keeping a stud going means owners have to sell, but Mr Oppenheimer is here and, of course, Mrs [Philippa] Cooper of Normandie Stud [who bred Gregory]. It's tough to run a stud and pay the stallion nominations and the whole deal, so they have to sell. They keep the fillies and sell the colts.

"A great ride for Frankie. It crowns his week – he's only good in long-distance races now! He's had a phenomenal career. Thirty years we've been working together on and off. We've had one argument in 30 years. How many marriages can say that? We patched that up after five days and were winning Group Ones in Deauville straight after that – we had a disagreement, that's fine, that's professional, and we kicked on after that. Look at the result today."

He added: “Our office racing manager Peter Shoemark put Courage Mon Ami in the race. You don’t know if they are going to stay two and a half miles. He looked quite mature at home but, look, he hasn’t been easy to train. He didn’t run at two, ran as a back-end three-year-old on the all-weather, and Mr Oppenheimer was very patient. He has the stud to run, which is very expensive, hence this horse is a gelding and he sold him. The form is solid with Coltrane, Subjectivist, and Emily Dickinson. It was a superb performance.”

Thady Gosden said: “Courage Mon Ami has always been a talented horse and he’s very lightly raced; it’s not very often you win the Gold Cup on your fourth start. He has improved with every run.

“It was a gutsy performance today and stepping up from handicap to Group One company, even though he was rated 106 before, is a pretty serious ask. He had a brilliant ride from Frankie – he looked as though he might be a touch unlucky for half a furlong there – but fortunately he got out of jail, and it was a very brave performance.

“He’s always looked smart, but as you can tell by the size of him, he’s taken plenty of time to mature. You’d like to think he’s still maturing now and can still improve.”

Coltrane’s rider Oisin Murphy said: “He relaxed great and travelled round super. I felt I could go and win the race. Frankie’s come with me and it was a good battle, and Frankie came out on top.”

Charlie Johnston said of Subjectivist: “He’s run a great race. I was sort of expecting he would win or we would be out with the washing! It’s been a long road and just being here is pretty special. Let’s hope he’s OK and we can go again.”