Frankie Dettori rides into final Royal Ascot with bookies on high alert

I t is possible to pinpoint with a considerable degree of accuracy the moment when Britain’s bookmaking industry last faced the possibility of a truly ruinous day at the races. At 5.05pm (and 22 seconds) on 20 June 2019, the 28-strong field in the Britannia Handicap at Royal Ascot was approaching the furlong pole and Turgenev, who had set off as the 7-2 favourite, was going strongly in front with a lead of nearly three lengths and trading at around 1-3 in-running on Betfair.

At that instant, Frankie Dettori, Turgenev’s rider, had already won the first four races on the card, at odds of 5-1, 13-2, 4-1 and evens. Victory No 5 on the day would have completed a 2,024-1 accumulator at SP, with many of Dettori’s loyal followers having banked much bigger prices earlier in the day. Just 12 seconds later, though, the bookmakers could breathe again, as Harry Bentley and Biometric emerged from the pack to chase them down and win by a length-and-a-quarter.

It was a dramatic and memorable afternoon, but also just one among many at the Royal meeting over the last three decades when Dettori, the most high-profile and popular rider of the post-Lester Piggott era, has demonstrated his ability to seize control of the narrative, at Ascot above all.

Much was said and written about his final ride in the Derby earlier this month, but Epsom, for whatever reason, was never really his track. Ascot absolutely is, and four years to the day after his latest golden afternoon at the course, Dettori has six booked rides on Tuesday’s opening card at what will be his final Royal meeting before he retires from the saddle later this year.

All six are priced up at single-figure odds, ranging from Inspiral, at 15-8, in the opening Queen Anne Stakes, to