Frankie Dettori handed 14-day ban after Mendocino shocks Torquator Tasso

Sunday: 152nd Wettstar Grosser Preis von Baden, Baden-Baden

Torquator Tasso will head for Paris and the defence of his Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe crown off the back of a narrow defeat to Mendocino.

For an agonising ten minutes it seemed that would be without Frankie Dettori, whose six strikes with the whip – one over the permitted limit – looked to have cost him any ride in the Arc, let alone such a high-profile one.

Dettori left his audience with the Baden-Baden stewards convinced that he would miss Europe's greatest race after being handed a 14-day suspension, news which sent the normally imperturbable Marcel Weiss sprinting up the stairs of the owners' and trainers' lounge in search of Torquator Tasso's owners.

The first hint that order was to be restored came from the stewards' secretary followed shortly by Dettori himself, who had learned his suspension would run until the Saturday of the Arc meeting through the good offices of former Group 1-winning jockey Filip Minarik.

"I got it wrong, it's starting Sunday," said a relieved Dettori, who will nonetheless miss the whole of Newmarket's Cambridgeshire meeting.

"We knew it was going to be a falsely run race, that's why I kicked at the 800 [metre mark], to make a race of it. It's not his style. He needs soft ground and horses stopping in front of him.

"He didn't run that bad but he needs a race to suit his style, not one with four runners. I did everything I could to make a race of it."

The opportunity to ride Torquator Tasso opened up because regular rider Rene Piechulek is retained by Mendocino's 90-year-old owner, Hans-Gerd Wernicke.

With an entry in the Arc already next to his name, Mendocino brought a trip to Paris much closer in running down Torquator Tasso, a fact not lost on the connections of the runner-up.

Dettori's immediate post-race debrief to the press was joined by Gestut Auenquelle's Karl-Dietrich Ellebracke, who asked of his jockey: "What do you think about him?"

Dettori's reply will have been reassuring to Ellebracke, who must already have been resigned to not having Piechulek available on October 2.

"When we go to France with soft ground and a strong pace, we'll be in business. If Rene's horse runs, I'm free and we're done," said Dettori, the two men concluding with a handshake.

Torquator Tasso after his narrow defeat in Germany's biggest all-aged raceCredit: Racing Post / Scott Burton

Although the difference between winning and losing the prep race was just a head, Paddy Power eased Torquator Tasso to 10-1 (from 13-2) for the Arc.

For Weiss the test will be how his horse of a lifetime reacts to such a hard race when he returns to the turf gallops in Mullheim in the build-up to what will almost certainly be his final race.

This was undoubtedly a career best from Mendocino, having last year finished second to Alpinista, the golden thread that runs through all of Germany's middle-distance form.

"He had a long break for three months and with just three runners in the race, I wanted to sit last," said Piechulek. "We were not in the same condition as the others, that's why I wanted to sit last and then try and pick them off as they came back to me."

Piechulek paid tribute to his partner and Mendocino's trainer Sarah Steinberg, who struck at Group 1 level for the first time in Germany's biggest all-aged race.

"She rides him every day and she really knows him, whereas I just sat on him for his final two pieces of work," he said.

As for what may transpire in four weeks' time at Longchamp, Piechulek was firm as to his commitments, if not the four-year-old Adlerflug colt's chances in the Arc.

Rene Piechulek and Sarah Steinberg celebrate after Mendocino's Group 1 breakthroughCredit: Foto: Sabine Brose/galoppfoto.de

"I have to ride him, I'm in a contract with the owner which is why I rode him today," said Piechulek. "We will see [about the Arc], that was a hard race after three months off, so we will see how he comes out of it."

Dettori was making a long overdue return to Baden-Baden after a decade away. It won't be among his fondest memories of this corner of Germany but he escaped with his dreams of a seventh Arc intact, though only just.

Dettori's whip lands O'Shea in trouble

Tadgh O'Shea has been left perplexed by stewards in Germany after the ten-time UAE champion jockey was handed a 14-day whip ban after finishing second aboard Ekleel Athbah in the Group 2 Arabian race at Baden-Baden on Sunday, writes Lewis Porteous.

O'Shea's ban comes exactly a week after jockey Ross Coakley wasleft upset by a controversial 23-day whip ban following his first Group victory at the same racecourse.

The strict rules relating to the whip in Germany permit for it to be used only five times during a race, with the use of it down the shoulder with hands on the rein still classed as one strike.

Like Coakley, O'Shea maintains he was fully aware of the rules heading to Baden-Baden and was shocked the stewards counted one strike down the shoulder. He maintains it was used for corrective purposes, but the stewards deemed he had broken the rules by a single strike.

"The rules are five [strikes] in Germany, which I'm very aware of," said O'Shea as he made his way from Baden-Baden racecourse to the airport. "Three and a half furlongs out, I'm three-parts of a length down on Andre de Vries [riding Jarif], who is the favourite and the main danger, so I'm keeping tabs on him.

Tadhg O'Shea: handed a 14-day whip ban at Baden-BadenCredit: Getty Images

"Something on his inside barges out and gives him a bump and in turn throws my filly out to the middle of the track with three and a half furlongs left to run. So I gave her a slap on the shoulder just to get her rebalanced.

"The race went on and between two furlongs out and the winning post, I used the whip correctly five times. I put it away in the last 150 yards, finishing second and was no match to the winner [Queenshala]."

He added: "I was surprised when I was called in by the stewards, but I explained my case and the stewards on the day agreed with me. I explained the slap down the shoulder which you're counting as one over was for corrective measures, which is why you're supposed to have the whip in the first place.

"As riders we're taught the way to get a horse rebalanced is a tap down the shoulder and get them organised."

Despite the stewards understanding why O'Shea had given his horse a slap down the shoulder in the first instance having become unbalanced through no fault of her own, the rider said the stewards explained there was no leeway in the rules and handed him the minimum ban of 14 days.

O'Shea, who will return to Dubai from Ireland at the end of the month, indicated an appeal is unlikely. He is set to be suspended from September 18 to October 1 inclusive.

"I know one thing, I won't be going back to Germany in a hurry," he said. "Common sense should have prevailed. They've seen themselves exactly what's happened."

One thing O'Shea could see the funny side to was the fact he had borrowed Frankie Dettori's whip in the race, before the same whip was carried by Dettori when he too picked up a 14-day ban aboard Torquator Tasso on the same card.

"They took my whip off me at Manchester airport, so I borrowed Frankie's," said O'Shea, "so that whip has got the equivalent of a month's ban today. He actually said to me 'Don't drop it' but I could have done with dropping it and we'd have both been okay!"

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