3 minute read

Frankie Dettori brought Elite Power with a devastating run down the centre of the track to win the Riyadh Dirt Sprint.

Slightly taken off his feet in the early stages, the Eclipse Award winner engaged overdrive inside the final two furlongs and ran out a wide-margin scorer.

Winner of the Breeders' Cup Sprint last time out, Elite Power was simply in a different league to his rivals – but this was a poignant success for Frankie Dettori.

He was sporting the silks of the famous Juddmonte operation, founded by the late Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah and worn to many big-race wins by Dettori on the likes of Enable and most recently in the Dewhurst on Chaldean.

"The first word that comes to mind is 'aeroplane'," said Dettori of the Bill Mott-trained five-year-old.

"As soon as I asked him to get a little bit closer he just took off and the race was over.

"The Abdullah family has been so good for the sport and I love the colours. It's given the locals something to cheer about."

Dettori, riding the horse for the first time and still breathless from the victory, added: "That is his style of racing, he took me by surprise, I did not want to give them too much rope and needed to lay up and he just took off, he rocketed off, like the turbo kicked in.

"They went hard early on, so I laid off them and went a bit wider to give him some clean air."

Mott's assistant, Neil Poznansky, said: "He's a big, strong animal. He shows nothing but class. He shipped over here like he was here his whole life. He's a good horse, a very good horse. His turn of foot is incredible, he's just incredible to watch, a magnificent animal.

"He's really coming into himself and getting better as he was really slow to mature. Now he's putting it all together. Bill doesn't come here without reason, but bringing a horse like Elite Power is a good reason to come.

"For Frankie and Juddmonte it was like a whole dynasty thing."