Equinties - jungle fever

Gm Equinauts

We thought this was common knowledge and certainly didn’t expect to be writing about it today but it was only yesterday ITV publicly confirmed Frankie Dettori, horse racing’s biggest personality, is set to appear in the next series of I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! 

The 52-year-old, who announced he will be riding in America in the next phase of his career, will join Nigel Farage, Tony Bellew, Marvin Humes and more in the Australian jungle with the first episode set to air on Sunday, November 19th.

He becomes the second horse racing personality to enter the jungle after Willie Carson’s fifth place in 2011. Interestingly, the show is set to run for three weeks and if Dettori makes it to the final, which takes place on December 10th, that will clash with the Hong Kong International Races which he is expected to ride at. 

Every household in Europe knows who Frankie Dettori but a jockey getting that much airtime can only be good for racing. 

Good luck, Frankie! 

Don’t forget: After giving away the Vegas trip last weekend, don’t miss our next prize - a £500 John Lewis gift voucher to help with your Christmas shopping.

Let’s dive in!

Our sponsor UK MEDS are the only online pharma-distributor to have the fat loss jab OZEMPIC in stock ever since Elon Musk tweeted about it creating a shortage.

Use code EQUINTIES50 for £50 off and free delivery.

HEADLINE ROUND UP

IMPRESSIVE WILLMOUNT 

Hype was realised yesterday as Nicky Henderson unleashed arguably his best novice hurdler of the season at Newbury yesterday in WILLMOUNT who bolted up by a distance. 

The 5yo, formerly with Neil Mulholland during his two bumper victories, had to do it the hard way once he hit the front of the pack down the back straight. That being said, it didn’t look hard at all! He travelled very well (much like a mature horse), jumped slickly, and used a nice stride to power through the line.

For what was quite clearly a very good performance, one has to remember there really wasn’t much in behind and so, like IROKO earlier this week, let’s not get tooooo carried away about Cheltenham just yet. 

That said, Nicky does tend to send his decent novice hurdlers to this race, so he obviously thinks a bit of him. 

CLONMEL CLUES

Willie Mullins had a good day yesterday as his stable star’s ALLEGORIE DE VASSY and ALLAHO kicked off their seasons in good style.

Beginning with the former, her main market rival, Cheltenham Festival winner MASKADA, faded away before the race got tasty which gave the six-year-old an easier task of things. 

Despite that, stablemate INSTIT gave her a good race while carrying 10lbs lower, but the well-backed Rich Ricci-owned mare got herself on top by the finish forcing bookies to go 7/2 about her for the Mares’ Chase.

As for ALLAHO, he made his first start for 561 days a winning one with stablemate JANIDIL nine lengths back in second. He had to make all, he wasn’t particularly flashy at the end and, as expected, he had to look at a few fences, but he did what he needed to do after such a long break.

Of course, he will come on massively for the run and his ability looks to be still there, but have we learned much more about him after the run? No, yet he was still squeezed into 7/2 for the Ryanair lol.

LUCA MOR-GONE

Last season’s champion conditional rider, Luca Morgan, announced his shock retirement from the saddle yesterday at just the age of 22. 

Morgan rode 45 winners during his title-winning season, many of which for his Gloucestershire-based boss Ben Pauling, including a memorable success on SLIPWAY in the 2022 Southern National at Fontwell. 

However, due to a “war with the scales” since the very beginning, Morgan has had to give up his “dream” just six years after his career started. Jockeys face issues with the scales on a regular basis and moments like these remind us of the pain they put themselves through just to get on the saddle every day.

Best of luck for the future, Luca! 

TODAY’S BEST STATS

One bullish stat today and that’s for LUNAR DISCOVERY in the 13.00. Moffatt is 2 from 5 in Hexham novice hurdles all time but more interestingly, LUNAR DISCOVERY is taking a route near identical to that of her half sibling BINGOO who bolted up first time over hurdles at Hexham.

RISK ON

Tough racing today but no doubt punters will be trying to land the Nicholls or Gordon Elliott perms. That’s not really our style.

The one horse to look out for today is DIAMOND RI in the 13.45 however the price is gone now.

To join the Weekender’s club and be in with a chance to win the £500 John Lewis git voucher, simply subscribe for £1 a week!

Become a paying subscriber of Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

A subscription gets you:

• • The weekender edition (Mon-Fri still free)
• • The weekends best bets
• • That warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing the intern gets fed
• • Only £1 a week!