FRANKIE Dettori drew level with Kieren Fallon in the jockeys' title race with one of the most dramatic successes of his career on Salamanca in the £250,000 Watership Down Stud Sales Race at Newbury on Saturday.

The Italian, an 11th-hour replacement for Alan Daly on the Sylvester Kirk-trained filly, was at his strongest as he drove the 5-1 favourite between Arabian Dancer and Umniya to cruelly deprive Mick Channon of the prize.

Channon was not only responsible for the second and third but also for the fourth and fifth, Bibury Flyer and Love Thirty.

It took the judge 10 minutes to decide that Salamanca had edged out her rivals in a finish of short heads and Kirk was a shade embarrassed at the late switch of rider after Dettori became available when his intended mount Code Orange was ruled out.

Kirk said: "The jockey arrangements were my fault. I thought John Egan was going to ride but he took a ride in Ireland.

"I put Alan up but then Frankie became available and the owners decided they wanted him.

"It wasn't a nice thing to do but Alan will be looked after."

Aside from the Dettori factor (he was also successful in the opening seven furlong maiden on Godolphin's Esquire), last year's champion apprentice Ryan Moore stole the show with a Pattern race double on The Tatling and Galeota.

Moore took his seasonal tally onto the 108 winner mark when timing his challenge perfectly on The Tatling who got up in the last few strides to catch American import Var.

Afterwards, the winner was cut from 6-1 into 5-1 favourite for the Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp on October 3.

Milton Bradley, who earlier in the year plundered Rotal Ascot's King's Stand Stakes with his stable star, could also let him take his chance in the Group 2 Diadem Stakes at Ascot next weekend.

Bradley said: "The owners want him to be entered. He has won over six, but he's a five-furlong horse. How he keeps his form I don't know, but he's a great servant."

Galeota showed he is a rapidly-improving juvenile when shaking off the attentions of Dettori and Mystical Land to win the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes. He had been on the mark for Richard Hannon just a week earlier at Doncaster but took the rise in class in his stride as he kept on gamely when challenged.

Galeota was touted as the best of Hannon's two-year-olds at the start of the season but the colt took longer than expected to realise his potential.

Hannon remarked: "How he was beaten first time out I will never know. If I was a gambling man, I would have had my house on him.

"He kept getting drawn on the outside and was hanging away from other horses, but the rail helped him today."

Having finished well beaten when a heavily-bet favourite for the 2003 race, Spuradich put the record straight in the £100,000 John Smith's Handicap to give jockey Nicky Mackay his second consecutive victory in the contest. The pair ran on too strongly for Mick Easterby's pair Jabaar and Blue Spinnaker but Mackay paid a price for his triumph on the Luca Cumani-trained colt as he was suspended for two days (September 29 and October 4) for careless riding by allowing his mount to drift off a true line on to challenging Blue Spinnaker.

Tom Queally was also suspended, for three days, after stewards considered he had let Jabaar drift in to and hamper Swagger Stick.

The Scottish Courage Berkshire Brewery Silver Jubilee Stakes went to Pentecost, a popular winner for local trainer Andrew Balding.