The twists of fate that delivered Frankie Dettori a final Gold Cup success
It could all have been so different. When Frankie Dettori rides the Gold Cup winner at his final Royal Ascot, the instinct is to accept that, of course, this was bound to happen, just as he was bound to win Classics in May and June.
Not so. We might easily have been living in a world in which the great man didn't ride Courage Mon Ami, the horse who coped so smoothly with such a big step up in class.
All it would have taken was for Haskoy to avoid the tendon injury which swept her into retirement last week. Ralph Beckett's filly was 8-1 for the Gold Cup and John Gosden readily accepted in the winner's enclosure that Dettori would have chosen her over his horse.
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