I’ve followed Frankie Dettori’s fairy tale life for 25 years – the world of racing won’t be the same without him
FABULOUS Frankie Dettori, the world’s best loved jockey, rides into the sunset at Ascot tomorrow.
When the 52-year-old Italian partners King of Steel in the Champion Stakes race, it will be his final ride in Great Britain before relocating to California.
As The Sun’s Punters Pal, I spent more than a quarter of a century following Frankie’s exploits on and off the track.
I drove thousands of miles to witness a fairy tale life no Hollywood scriptwriter could ever invent.
All year we were led to believe that the 5ft 4in tall super showman would be retiring from the Sport of Kings and taking life easy.
But now Frankie tells us that he is off to the USA instead, to race for "three months, or it could be three years".
That doesn’t surprise me in the least.
Lanfranco Dettori was born in Milan on December 15, 1970 under the Sagittarian star sign.
Their characteristics are an ability to stumble and fall but always to get up and try again.
You can forgive them for almost anything because they will set your heart free with a very great gift – an honest love.
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That’s Dettori to a tee.
Another famous Sagittarian was Frank Sinatra, who was noted for his many comebacks.
So don’t bet against this Frankie returning for 2024 Royal Ascot – although he said this week that he won’t be back because he has achieved everything in Britain.
How fitting that Ascot is the venue for Frankie’s final farewell to the UK.
I was there on that unforgettable day in September 1996 when Dettori went through the complete card for his Magnificent Seven winners at accumulator odds of a bookie-bashing 25,095-1.
The bookmakers were hit for an estimated £50million by his seven-time sting.
But beneath Frankie’s showman’s personality, he is actually quite sentimental.
When Fujiyama Crest, the horse he rode in that famous seventh race at Ascot in 1996, retired from racing, Frankie bought him and kept him in his own paddock.
Cold statistics show that over 35 years Dettori has ridden more than 3,500 winners, including 287 Group 1 races and 27 British Classics, and has been champion jockey three times.
But even more important, he has left in his trail so many glorious memories.
He says: “I’ve had such a marvellous year winning the 2,000 Guineas and the Oaks and if I totally retired I could never live with myself again.
"California’s winter weather is great and there is little travelling to the tracks.”
Humble aspirations
His father Gianfranco was 13 times Italian jockey and his mother Mara was a circus performer. He has his loyal wife Catherine and five children.
He once told me: “When I grew up in Milan, my big ambition was simply to become a petrol pump attendant.”
But with career earnings of over £150million, he was able to own a string of gleaming Ferrari’s.
When he arrived at Newmarket in 1985 as a 14-year-old stable lad, not speaking a word of English, he was so home sick that he cried himself to sleep every night.
Recently he rode his 500th winner at Newmarket and said: “It’s great to end like this. It’s been my home.”
But recently he rented out his sprawling Newmarket home for £15,000 a month and moved to London.
Embarrassing moments
While he will always be remembered for his trademark flying dismounts after big race wins, his other trait is a habit of kissing people in his unbridled enthusiasm.
One day, after I had written a feature on him, I was at Lingfield when he spotted me and planted a kiss on my cheek.
He said: “Ah, Punter’s Pal, I loved that bit in today’s Sun.”
A much more embarrassing moment came after he won the 2015 Arc de Triomphe on Golden Horn.
Longchamp’s press interview room was absolutely packed. He saw me and charged over with another smacking kiss. French journalists couldn’t believe their eyes.
But I have been in very good company.
After he received the prize for winning this year’s Ascot Gold Cup from the newly-crowned King and Queen, he could not resist giving Camilla a peck on the cheek.
The golden rule of never touching royalty went straight out of the window – nobody but Frankie could get away with it.
When he won the 2019 St Leger on Conduit, he asked trainer Sir Michael Stoute, “Shall we hug?”
Totally embarrassed, Stoute said: “Not in public. I’m not an Italian.”
But that did not stop him planting yet another smacker.
Latin temperament
When Frankie became champion jockey, The Sun created a special cup to mark the occasion.
Later he delighted in telling me: “Thieves have raided my house and stolen a lot of silverware but amazingly they left your cup!”
He has a typical Latin temperament. When all is going well, he is on cloud nine. When he is dejected, he is plunged into terrible despair, and I have seen both sides of his character.
Once we had arranged an interview at Nottingham where he would talk about a moment of stupidity in his life.
I knew he had finished his rides and waited patiently, only to discover that he’d escaped my awkward questions by climbing out of a backroom window.
He also has a short fuse.
Golfing in Dubai he was bored with a fellow player taking ages to take his tee shorts. Dettori finally yelled: “Just hit it. We’ll f*****g find it!”
In April 2003, after watching his beloved Arsenal, he was arrested for possession of cocaine. He escaped with a police warning.
In September 2012 he failed a drugs test in France and was given a six-month ban.
He admitted: “I was dejected and acted in a moment of madness. I’ve only have myself to blame. In a way it did me a favour as I could not move to Hong Kong.”
Darkest day
His glorious spell as Sheikh Mohammed’s jockey in Godolphin’s blue silks ended in tears in 2012.
But recently he has teamed up successfully with trainer John Gosden, who has twice rescued his career.
His darkest day came in June 2000, when he shared a lift with fellow jockey Ray Cochrane in a small private plane. Minutes after take-off at Newmarket bound for Goodwood, the plane crashed and burst into flames.
Cochrane bravely pulled Dettori from the wreckage, but the pilot Patrick Mackey was killed.
Dettori says: “I knew we were going to crash. All I could think was that I would never see my wife Catherine and son Leo ever again. It was a miracle Ray and I escaped with our lives.”
It was many was years later before Dettori ever flew again in small aeroplanes.
At least now Dettori, the world’s highest paid weight-watcher, will be free to enjoy his favourite pastime – eating.
He laughs: “I am looking forward to a few decent meals. In Italy, more than anywhere else in the world, we live to eat rather than eat to live.”
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When tomorrow he kisses goodbye to his British career, he admits: “I know I will cry. I’m only human.”
Yes, a very human being. And after tomorrow, British racing will NEVER be quite the same again.
