Frankie Dettori enjoyed the best day of his US sojourn as he teamed up with Bob Baffert to land the Santa Anita Handicap – the storied Big ’Cap – on Newgate on Sunday’s card, thereby confirming their status at the upper end of Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings.
Dettori, who postponed his retirement to ride in California over the winter, also won the G2 San Felipe on Baffert-trained Imagination (stablemate Nysos was scratched, but Baffert still got the one-two).
The trainer wasn’t done there, either, as he also saddled Du Jour to win the G2 Kilroe Mile under Flavien Prat.
World #4 Baffert earned an 80pt boost on TRC Rankings stands and is now snapping at the heels of Chad Brown as the highest-placed US trainer behind world leader Aidan O’Brien.
For his part, Dettori is #9 among jockeys, led for the second week in a row by James ‘J-Mac’ McDonald.
This was certainly a red-letter day for Dettori, 53, who stands fourth in the standings for the current Santa Anita meet with 25 winners. He needed all his strength and determination as the four-year-old Newgate (now #106) ran down front-running outsider Subsanador for a hard-fought head win in the $400,000 Santa Anita Handicap.
The rider, needless to say, was delighted. “When I was a kid here in the late 80s, there were 60,000 people here to see Ferdinand and Alysheba and you just couldn’t move,” he recalled.
“I was in awe. I rode in the Big ’Cap the first time last year and it was a dream – and to win it, I couldn’t ask for anything more.
“It is a big feather in my cap, they don’t get bigger than the Santa Anita Big ’Cap’,” added Dettori, set to chase a fourth consecutive victory on Lord North in the Dubai Turf later this month. “The last 20 yards we got out in front, and I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I could not believe that I had done it.”
Baffert, 71, paid tribute to the rider. “Frankie is incredible,” Baffert said. “What he’s done in Europe … then to come here and adapt to dirt racing like he has. He basically tells you, ‘If you have them ready, don’t worry about it.’ I like that. That’s his confidence level.”
Japanese superstar Equinox, now retired to stud, sits atop the horse rankings for the 50th week since his victory last year in the Dubai Sheema Classic. He will soon exit the rankings, however, when he reaches the 118-day cutoff point since his final outing in the Japan Cup.
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
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