Now I’m prepared to go out there and prove everybody wrong

Now I’m prepared to go out there and prove everybody wrong.”Island Sands, Saturday’s winning conveyance, altered a few perceptions himself. He did not bring a great reputation or dimensions into the July course parade ring, though his coat shone deeply with the impression of gradual conditioning rather than last-minute lacquer.Commander Collins, with his head held high, was far more overt, making a dreadful sound on his bit as if chewing marbles. Enrique bowed his head apologetically and Mujahid was all torso, a Spacehopper of a horse.Once the stalls opened Island Sands did not get much chance to judge the physique of his opponents as he was sent straight into the lead. It was a teasing pace to begin with but, at half-way, Dettori depressed the accelerator to the floor.Island Sands was passed briefly by Mujahid, but the latter’s brief rocket surge ended in explosion just inside the final furlong. Enrique was the last to challenge and, though he came from some way back, he was delivered in time by Kieren Fallon. Island Sands was just too good, Dettori’s judgement of pace spot on.The jockey knew this was a job well done, a thorough redemption. He prodded himself in the chest, crossed himself and sent a kiss and his gaze up to the heavens.

It looked like St Vitus’s dance on horseback.Dettori was still full of it on his return and pointed a finger at an interviewer’s television camera. “I have a message for Sheikh Mohammed and the rest of the Godolphin [team] in Kentucky,” he said. “I’ve done my bit here, now it’s up to you.”There was a sense here that Dettori had had to prove himself again within the desert-nurtured team. When the flak was flying around after Kentucky it may not all have come from outside the tent.This, of course, is not the official bulletin from Godolphin. The main players in the operation, including Sheikh Mohammed himself, got in at 6am yesterday after supervising Worldly Manner’s abortive effort in the Kentucky Derby.

“I thought he gave the horse a tremendous ride, as Frankie does,” Simon Crisford, Godolphin’s racing manager, said.The 2,000 Guineas is intended to be a beginning for a Classic racehorse, but recently it has become a terminus for the likes of King Of Kings, Entrepreneur and Pennekamp. Island Sands will next try to improve his ranking in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. “I think he’ll probably go a bit farther than a mile because he wasn’t stopping yesterday, but a mile is a good trip for the moment,” Crisford said.Island Sands will share Godolphin’s miling responsibilities this season with Aljabr, who may be seen out next in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Last season’s leading juvenile returns to Newmarket after moving sloppily in practice before the Kentucky Derby and then going wrong behind on the eve of the race. Aljabr comes back from America with his reputation in tatters, seeking to relocate glories. Another member of his team should be able to give advice on that..