Dieting-Dettori's Enable set for King George coronation

Frankie Dettori missed Royal Ascot but on Saturday he returns to the Berkshire course with a compelling chance of lifting the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Enable.

It is 13 years since the Italian legend last won the British showpiece for a fourth time on Doyen.

He has high hopes of ending the long wait for a fifth King George on the John Gosden-trained English and Irish Oaks heroine.

Enable faces a maximum of nine rivals headed by last year's winner Highland Reel.

Aidan O'Brien's globetrotting five-year-old colt commanded the ante-post betting until Enable entered calculations.

With the ground forecast to be in her favour, Enable is only 6-5 to emulate Gosden's Taghrooda, the last classic generation filly to land the mile and a half (2400m) contest in 2014, trained also by Gosden.

Dettori has been dieting to ensure the three-year-old filly fully exploits her attractive weight allowance against her male counterparts and elders in this all-aged £1 million ($1.3m, 1.1m euros) Grade One mid-summer highlight.

And he reported his conveyance in buoyant health after she unceremoniously threw him to the floor on the gallops in Newmarket this week.

"I rode Enable (on Tuesday) and believe it or not she dumped me on the floor," he recounted in his blog for British bookmaker Ladbrokes.

- Immortalised -

"I was like, 'thanks very much!' Luckily, I fell standing up but she still dumped me. She is just full of herself right now and raring to go."

The 46-year-old jockey, immortalised in Ascot folklore after his 'magnificent seven' when he went through the card on September 28, 1996, had to cry off Royal Ascot with a shoulder injury.

He rushed his return to team up with Enable at the Curragh in the Irish Oaks a fortnight ago.

"She (Enable) was the reason I came back from injury so early. She really is special. I pushed myself so I could ride her in Ireland and it was worth it."

On his fasting he said: "I've got to do 8st 7lb (53.97 kilos) in the King George, which is my bare minimum, so I need to keep my weight down.

"My diet is all boring stuff at the moment – white fish, vegetables and water. It's grim!"

Enable is joined by stablemate Jack Hobbs, the 5-1 third favourite who won the Irish Derby in 2015, but who was well beaten by Highland Reel in the Prince of Wales's Stakes at the Royal meeting last month.

O'Brien's admirable servant, a winner in Ireland, England, the United States and Hong Kong, is back to follow up his 2016 success over the Dettori-ridden Wings of Desire.

O'Brien, who also runs Highland Reel's full brother Idaho, on the mark at Royal Ascot in the Hardwicke Stakes, said: "They both came out of Ascot well and we're happy with them."

While the master Irish trainer is seeking his fifth King George for Highland Reel, victory will see him overtake the now retired Cirrus des Aigles's European record £6 million in prize money.

In Saturday's top-class renewal Michael Stoute's Ulysses is 8-1 fourth favourite to follow up his Eclipse Stakes success, while at the other end of the market at 100-1 lurks a rare runner from South America, Sixties Song.

The race is due off at 1435 GMT.

source: AFP