Dettori to Ride at GP Donn Day

Frankie Dettori will be at Gulfstream Park Feb. 7 to ride at least two horses in graded stakes events on the GI Donn H. day card, including Sandiva (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) for Al Shaqab Racing in the GIII Suwanee River H. Javier Castellano rode the 4-year-old filly last out in her winning effort in the Dec. 20 Tropical Park Oaks. Dettori will not replace Castellano aboard Al Shaqab’s Mshawish (Medaglia d’Oro) in the GI Gulfstream Park Turf H. that same day, according to Al Shaqab’s U.S. Advisor, Bradley Weisbord. “Although Frankie Dettori is the retained rider for Al Shaqab, we discussed as a team the need to keep Javier on Mshawish due to the fact that he is a difficult horse to ride and because Javier has built a great rapport with him and we didn’t want to change anything on the eve of a Grade I, particularly when they’re two-for-two together and two-for-two at Gulfstream,” Weisbord explained. “He’s America’s best rider, the Eclipse Award winner, and Gulfstream’s leading rider, and we decided to leave him aboard. Frankie has always been known as a team player and he is very understanding of the situation.” According to a story in the Racing Post, Dettori will be aboard Sloane Avenue (Candy Ride {Arg}) for trainer Jeremy Noseda in the Donn the same day. Sloane Avenue has won two of five starts in Great Britain with Dettori aboard, and finished next-to-last in his one U.S. attempt in the GIII Hill Prince at Belmont in October. “Sloane Avenue is by Candy Ride out of an A.P. Indy mare, so it’s an American dirt pedigree,” Noseda told the Racing Post.