Mitsumasa Nakauchida will be the man giving Frankie Dettori his final ride on North American soil – barring the unforeseen – when he sends out Argine in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile on Saturday, but he will not be giving out any final instructions to the living legend.
“I will leave everything to Frankie, he’s Frankie Dettori, he knows what to do,” Nakauchida said with a smile.
The trainer had not long arrived at Del Mar from Japan on Thursday morning when he walked up the rise to the quarantine barn where Argine is stabled. That meant he had not seen Dettori ride the mare on the track the morning prior, a low-key job in the hours before the great Italian broke to the world via social media that he would not ride again in North America after Saturday, and would retire for good after a few rides in South America.
Dettori did all he could to be inconspicuous – an impossible task for the world’s most recognisable jockey – as he waited close to the dirt track’s barn-side entrance on Wednesday for Argine’s arrival.
He chatted briefly with the security folks before finding cover at the shaded, quiet corner of the barn row in the moments before Argine and Nakauchida’s travelling team arrived to give him the leg up. When he and the mare returned several minutes later, he dismounted at that same spot just inside the track gate and walked with Nakauchida’s people.
He talked as he walked, asking for them to send through the videos of Argine’s last three runs so that his own preparation might be complete. Then to the JRA room beside the quarantine stables to collect his bag and switch riding helmet for baseball cap.
“She was good, yeah, this morning was just to get a feel for her,” Dettori told Idol Horse as he prepared to leave. “The trainer told me not to go fast.
“I haven’t seen her races, so I just asked there for them to send me the videos. I spoke to Damian (Lane) and he said she’s pretty straightforward; she felt light on her feet, which is what you need at a track like Del Mar, but I’ll look at the videos and work it all out.”
Dettori left with bag on shoulder, pausing to chat with the driver of a red Jeep Wrangler, Sahara trim, before walking on past a posse of disappointed reporters with an excusing wave and a quickened step.
He was not around at Del Mar on Thursday morning when Nakauchida told Idol Horse he is “Absolutely” pleased with Argine’s preparation for her small yet important place in the history of Dettori’s epic career.
“We’ve been aiming for this race since the spring-time so the race she had in August was a prep race for here and she managed to win, so then she came out of that really good and she’s in good form here so far.”
The five-year-old Lord Kanaloa mare who races, like her sire, for the Lord Horse Club, has won seven of her 14 starts, all at a mile or 1800m, and has had only three runs this year: second in the G2 Hanshin Himba in April; a close fourth under Lane behind Ascoli Piceno in the G1 Victoria Mile in May; victory in the G3 Queen Stakes at Sapporo in early August.
Nakauchida, a man renowned not only for being a great judge of a horse but also for his astute race placement and an impressive strike rate, believes Argine is now at her career peak, which she’ll need to be in a race featuring the second and third from last year’s race, Johannes and Notable Speech, plus stars like Sahlan, Formidable Man and Rhetorical.
“Towards the end of last year, she started to mature herself and kind of started meeting our expectations,” he said. “Now as a five-year-old she’s fully mature, so that gave me the confidence to travel abroad and bring her here.
“This is towards the end of her career,” he added. “She might have another run in Japan after this but she is near the end of her racing career now.”
Just like Dettori then, Argine’s Breeders’ Cup Mile assignment is a race that puts her right on the cusp of retirement, and victory would make it a glorious and poignant moment never to be forgotten. ∎
