Crowning moment for champion miler but best yet to come

When Frankie Dettori arrived at Ascot on that fateful day 20 years ago, he would have been preoccupied by one race alone. The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes would bestow the winner with the accolade of Europe’s champion miler. Dettori’s mount, Mark Of Esteem, was up against the imperious Bosra Sham and crack French colt Ashkalani, who was sent off the 9-4 favourite.

“Frankie rode the horse in his last piece of work and he was full of confidence going into the race,” reflects Mark Of Esteem’s trainer, Saeed Bin Suroor. “The horse had showed his class in that gallop and we felt we had a great chance.”

That gallop shaped the mood of everyone connected with Mark Of Esteem, who had won the 2,000 Guineas four months earlier. “He was one of these extraordinary horses that when he worked he would lower himself to the ground like a Ferrari,” remembers Simon Crisford, Godolphin’s racing manager at the time.