The Frankel entire’s co-trainer John Gosden is now looking towards the G1 Irish Champion Stakes at the same distance next month, but a rematch with Paddington is not on the cards according to the latter’s trainer Aidan O’Brien.
That was the one definite among maybes in the master trainer’s post-race assessment.
“Maybe it was just a race too much,” O’Brien said. “He had a tough race the last day (in the Sussex Stakes), we had to fight horses off twice in soft ground; maybe I just pushed him a little bit too far, and maybe I should have waited and gone to Leopardstown and given him a little bit more time to recover, but that’s the way it is.
“He definitely won’t go to the Irish Champion after that … Sometimes you can stretch the elastic band too much. I would have to say maybe I shouldn’t have run him; maybe I should have given him more time.”
As for Dettori, his time is running out as he enters the final months of his long goodbye, with retirement looming ever closer.
“We’ll miss you, Frankie!” someone called out as one of the sport’s modern greats returned to the winner’s unsaddling corner with his arms aloft.
The crowd cheered wholeheartedly when he leapt from the saddle in trademark style, and an excitable paddock-side group of buxom Yorkshire lasses yelled lustily, “Frankie! You come here, Frankie…”