Gold Cup Winner to provide Frankie Dettori with Fitting Glorious Goodwood Send Off?

The end of the 2023 Flat racing season will see the curtain fall on the career of one of the greatest jockeys ever to step into the saddle.

Frankie Dettori will retire with a CV that may perhaps never be topped in British racing, with 287 Group 1 winners (and counting) amassed over 35 years of riding. A whopping 23 of them have come in the Classics, while 80 triumphs at Royal Ascot will secure Dettori’s legacy as one of the meeting’s best and most popular jockeys.

With the campaign not coming to a close until September, there’s still time for the 52-year-old to notch a few more big wins for his collection – at Glorious Goodwood, he will have a chance to reconnect with one of his finest mounts of 2023 to date.

Have Courage, Mon Ami

Courage Mon Ami, the horse who gave Dettori a ninth and final win in the Ascot Gold Cup back in June, has been installed as the 5/2 favourite for racing betting at Glorious Goodwood. The four-year-old is the market principal ahead of Coltrane (3/1), Gregory (10/3) and Subjectivist (11/2) in the Goodwood Cup.

That’s a two-mile outing that Dettori has won on five separate occasions – most notably on board Stradivarius in 2019 and 2020, so the Italian will have fond memories of the race and Glorious Goodwood in general, where he has enjoyed plenty of success over the past three decades.

He’ll be hoping for more in 2023 as well, with Courage Mon Ami defeating both Coltrane and Subjectivist in that famous Gold Cup triumph earlier this season. Dettori help up his mount at the rear of the field, and with Coltrane in particular travelling well it appeared as though the veteran had made an error of judgement in holding his charge back.

🏆 @FrankieDettori WINS HIS FINAL EVER GOLD CUP!

Courage Mon Ami has enough left in the tank to carry the King of Ascot to Glory!#ITVRacing | #RoyalAscot | #GoldCup pic.twitter.com/1zTGIWS2Hh

— ITV Racing (@itvracing) June 22, 2023

But Courage Mon Ami went through the gears with relish at the business end of the race, powering past the field to record yet another Group 1 win for the Dettori and John Gosden connection.

Hot Summer

It appears as though the horse prefers life on the faster ground – he won his debut on the turf, at Goodwood no less, on firm going back in May.

Connections will be hoping that England’s warm, dry summer continues into August when Glorious Goodwood will take place at the start of the month, although cooler and wetter conditions may yet see the Goodwood Cup betting market change in the lead-up to the race.

Coltrane certainly won’t mind softer ground. He won the Doncaster Cup on good-to-soft, downing the eye-watering short 2/9 favourite Trueshan along the way to frustrate punters no end, before following up in the Sagaro Stakes on similarly stodgy ground at Ascot back in May.

Impressive! Coltrane makes a smart reappearance to win the Group 3 Longines Sagaro Stakes at @Ascot for @oismurphy and @AndrewBalding2… pic.twitter.com/wJR84iISSN

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) May 3, 2023

Subjectivist will also come into contention on softer ground – he has won the Prix Royal-Oak on heavy ground at Longchamp, so you can forgive his connections for doing a rain dance and Dettori, Gosden and co praying that England’s long, hot summer continues for a while longer.

If it does, Dettori may just get the fitting Goodwood swansong his stellar career deserves.