🔗 Share this article

The journey has been an exhilarating, glorious and at times bumpy ride, yet now, it appears the famed jockey's decision is final. The most storied jockey of the past 40 years will effectively enter retirement after the main card at the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar on Saturday, when he will have three chances to secure one last Grade One winner to his almost 300 on his record already. Racing may not see a career quite like it again.

A Household Name

Alongside racing great Lester Piggott and maybe John McCririck in the last 50 years, Frankie Dettori registers with pretty much everyone, no surname required. The public knows who he is, even if they have no interest at all in what he does. In a world that has been divided by social media and online networks, Dettori could be the last racing figure who will ever experience such immediate name-recognition among a wide segment of the British population.

Dettori’s lifetime in the sport, after all, dates back to a time when the show A Question Of Sport regularly pulled in more than 10 million viewers, and his three-year role as a team leader was sufficient to cement him as the lively, irrepressible face of racing. His final year on the program was 2004, that was also the year when he won the top jockey award for a third and last occasion. As far as many in the UK, however, he has likely been the top jockey for many seasons since.

A Hard-Won Celebrity

It is, in many respects, a hard-won celebrity, a double-edged reward for events both on and off the track which have often propelled Dettori into the headlines, ever since that memorable day at Ascot in 1996 when he defied massive 25,000-1 odds to win all seven races that day.

In June 2000, he was pulled from a fiery crash of a light aircraft by fellow jockey, Ray Cochrane, after a crash on takeoff in which the plane’s pilot was killed. When he finally ended his quest for a Derby winner in 2007, that too was front-page news.

While everyone admires a winner, they frequently adore an imperfect hero and a comeback all the more. A six-month ban following a positive drug test for cocaine would have been the finish for many riders in their 40s, plenty of time for trainers and owners to find a younger alternative. For Dettori, though, suspension in December 2012 was a bridge to a renewed association with John Gosden at Newmarket, and a fresh succession of winners and classic victors, such as Enable, Golden Horn and Stradivarius.

Ups and Downs

The celebrated successes and setbacks were a crucial element of Dettori’s story, right up until the humiliating admission in March that he was filing for bankruptcy after a prolonged dispute with HMRC regarding unpaid taxes, a situation that he attempted, and did not succeed, to keep confidential.

There were so many twists to the tale, indeed, that it's easy to forget that absent his tremendous, generational talent, there would be no story at all.

Natural Ability

It was evident from his earliest days as a young apprentice that he had an instinctive rapport with the horses when Dettori was in the saddle.

Steeds performed for him, and got better under him. In 1990, he became the first teen since Lester Piggott to achieve 100 wins in a season, and also announced his emergence at the highest level with a Group One double at Ascot, on the same card that he would charge without a loss just six years later. The famous flying dismount, adopted from the American legend Angel Cordero Jr, was incorporated into his routine in 1994, and the buzz from winning major races has never left him. Neither has the talent of sensing, with something akin to clairvoyance, where to sit, when to make a move and where openings will emerge.

The Future Ahead

But what now for the recognizable figure of UK horse racing? It will not be easy to finally let go, whether or not Dettori fulfils his expressed wish to accept some mounts in South America, something that I’ve always wanted to do”. It is not, in fact, an ambition that he has mentioned until now.

But the calamitous decision to follow tax guidance that led to his tax issues means that Dettori will not end his career with sufficient funds in the bank to relax and take it easy.

Fresh Ventures

He has already been confirmed in a new role as a “global ambassador” with the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian's growing Amo Racing enterprise. He explained to racing presenter Matt Chapman on Friday this was the primary reason for his exit now, as well as being able to finish at the Breeders’ Cup. “These opportunities don’t come along, frequently. I like the set-up – this is a young team with big ambitions,” said the rider.

Joorabchian, himself, was effusive in his compliments for his new recruit on Thursday at Del Mar. “He is an icon, a genuine legend of the sport,” he stated. “When discussing great sportsmen like LeBron James, Currys, Messis and Pelés and people like that, Frankie represents that to horse racing. When you go into Royal Ascot, you notice a statue, you know that he has influenced countless lives across the world.

“He’s not here|“He isn't here} to amuse audiences, he's here to work and he will collaborate with us very closely. He will be involved in every area of our operations though he won't serve as a racing manager. He is an international ambassador.”

Television reality shows are another option, although earlier outings on Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity often showed a more somber aspect of his personality, behind the ebullient public image. On both shows, he was an early exit due to viewer votes.

It's possible that Dettori personally does not really know what he'll do and how to spend his time after his riding career ends. And for another 24 hours at least, he remains a top-level professional jockey, concentrating on three mounts at one of the most prestigious and dazzling events in the calendar.

The Final Ride

A five-year-old filly named Argine will be Dettori’s final Grade One mount in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the identical event in which he registered his first Breeders’ Cup success in 1994. Her form at home indicates that she has something to find to figure, yet few jockeys in history have ever risen to an occasion like Frankie Dettori.

One last time, cue Frankie?