Talking Horses: Frankie Dettori lifts the Oaks on Anapurna

Modern Flat racing is a billionaire’s playground but the owners of the Meon Valley Stud in Hampshire managed to land a blow on the major players here on Friday, as their home-bred filly Anapurna, with Frankie Dettori in the saddle, beat Aidan O’Brien’s Pink Dogwood in the Oaks. On Saturday, meanwhile, the same operation will have a major stake in the Derby itself, when Telecaster, who was also bred at Meon Valley, will go to post as one of the favourites.

O’Brien has seven of the 13 runners in Saturday’s Classic, reflecting the increasing dominance of the Coolmore Stud operation in Ireland on the Flat in recent years. Like Anapurna, though, Telecaster carries the colours of the kind of small-scale owner-breeder that many in the sport had considered extinct, and victory would complete a remarkable double for Mark Weinfeld and Helena Ellingsen, the main partners in Meon Valley Stud.

Anapurna’s win was Dettori’s 18th success in a British Classic and his second in the Oaks in the last three renewals, following Enable’s victory two seasons ago. He was confirmed as Anapurna’s jockey only a few days ago, when the owners of Mehdaayih, who set off as favourite here, decided to keep faith with Rab Havlin, and there was rarely a moment in Friday’s race when it seemed that Dettori was on the wrong filly from the John Gosden stable.

Whether Anapurna would be good enough to overhaul Pink Dogwood seemed less certain as Ryan Moore’s mount hit the front two out and opened up a useful lead. Once Dettori had found some running room, though, he took aim at the leader and ran her down several strides to spare.

“I was concentrating on trying to float down the hill without using any energy,” Dettori said. “Then I was trying to look for a gap and I’m still dealing with that when Ryan and Jim Crowley [on Maqsad] came from the other side and I thought, they’re gone.

“It was still two furlongs [to go] but he had three lengths on me and I thought it might be a bridge too far. But then, in the last 100 yards, I knew that I had him.

“It’s a great buzz. It’s 25 years since my first one [on Balanchine in 1994], and sometimes when you’re not riding a favourite you’re able to enjoy a bit more. We knew we had a chance, but I was able to enjoy it.”

Dettori will hope to complete the Oaks-Derby double for the first time in his career tomorrow when he rides Circus Maximus, a son of Galileo, for O’Brien. Anapurna, meanwhile, was the first the first winner of a European Classic to be sired by the brilliant Frankel, another son of Galileo.

Gosden paid tribute to Weinfeld and Ellingsen, drawing on his own experiences as a breeder as he did so.

“Breeding horses is a nightmare,” Gosden said. “It’s the toughest thing, my wife and I have tried and things go wrong all the time.

“For owner-breeders like Mark and Helena with their farm at Meon Valley and the beautiful horses that they produce at the sales, there’s one running in the Derby tomorrow that people didn’t think was good enough and didn’t sell.

“It’s a great test of faith and without these owner-breeders, there would be no proper racing. Luckily before we’ve won the Oaks before for big owner-breeders, but Mark and Helena have their farm down in Hampshire and they are, in a sense, the most important ingredient.”

Weinfeld described himself as “speechless” after Anapurna’s victory. “I didn’t think we were going to get there,” he said. “John has always liked her, she won her trial very well. We didn’t know how good she was and how she would handle the course, but she did it nicely and Frankie gave her a super ride.”

Anapurna is now a hugely valuable broodmare in the making, and will join the mares at Meon Valley in due course before her own offspring start to appear at the sales in a few years’ time. She still has a racing career in front of her, though, and is quoted at 20-1 by Paddy Power for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October, a race for which her stable companion Enable, the winner for the last two seasons, is currently favourite.

In addition to Pink Dogwood, O’Brien also saddled Fleeting to finish third behind Anapurna but his winning run in the British Classics, as well as his hopes of becoming the first trainer ever to win all five in the same season, are now over.