| 21 years of winning: Frankies leap of faith |
 Giving
up school at 13 to work in a racing stable, and leaving his native
Italy a couple of years later to take an apprenticeship in Newmarket,
could have proved the wrong choice for Lanfranco Dettori. History has proved otherwise, of course – more than 2,500 victories later he is still winning. The first came at Goodwood... Even today, Frankie Dettori can still pass as the impish, fresh-faced youth who left his native Italy to pursue his riding career. It therefore comes as a shock to recall that Dettori rode his first winner here in Britain 21 years ago. Gloriously, it came at Goodwood, on 9th June 1987, riding Lizzie Hare in the Birdless Grove Handicap. He was just 16 years old. Little did sun-kissed race goers realise they had just witnessed the first chapter in one of the most compelling narratives in sport. For Dettori is a rare creature: a man who transcends racing to the extent that his face is universally recognised. It all started at Goodwood. “I have had some wonderful times there,”Dettori reflects, “and of course, every jockey remembers his first winner for the rest of his life. I had actually ridden some winners in Italy the year before, but for me, the story really starts at Goodwood. It has a special place in my heart.” Mind you, the racecourse’s unique contours are not always kind. “Some years I’ve had more than my fair share of bad luck – and believe me, I know that feeling well,” he says. “But that’s what makes racing there so exciting. It is very unpredictable; a tough track to ride. Overall, though, my highs have been better than my lows.” That much is true about Dettori’s life in general – and his personality in particular. He happily acknowledges that he can be a grumpy soul, just as he can light up a room with his effervescent personality. This latter facet is what renders him the dominant entity in racing. He defies the caricature of jockeys as men oppressed by the rigours of constant dieting. A regular on the chat-show circuit, he captained a team on Question of Sport, the BBC sports quiz, for three years. Soon after quitting (on his terms) in 2003, he opened the first of five eponymous restaurants in London, with his good friend Marco Pierre White. The most recent, Frankie’s Italian Bar and Grill, is situated in Dubai’s Oasis Beach Tower. At the time of writing there is a week-long waiting list for tables. In addition, this lover of food has his own range of frozen pizzas although he is moving away from such endorsements to concentrate on serving food at tables, rather than from packets. “The frozen food market has become particularly competitive,” he says, “and I don’t have much spare time for promoting things. “Sometimes people forget that riding is my career,” he continues. Although he is moving away from such endorsements to concentrate on serving food at tables, rather than from packets. “The frozen food market has become particularly competitive,” he says, “and I don’t have much spare time for promoting things. “Sometimes people forget that riding is my career,” he continues. “For a couple of years I also had some male grooming products and fragrances. Not too many people can say they’ve managed to do that in their lifetimes, but I’m 37 now. Racing is my life. I want to keep going until I’m at least 45.” More than two decades ago Dettori arrived in Newmarket to serve an apprenticeship with the town’s most prominent Italian resident, Luca Cumani. He had been sent by his father Gianfranco, himself the champion jockey in Italy 13 times. There couldn’t possibly have been any other career path for the boy who left school at 13 to work in a racing stable. To this day, father and son remain remarkably close; they talk practically every day on the phone. Indeed, after a tight finish on Frankie’s second-ever ride in Italy, his father was hauled before the stewards for hitting Frankie’s horse – rather than his own – in an effort to propel him to victory. In those early years, Cumani proved both a stern taskmaster and a guiding light. Appropriately, it was the surrogate father who legged Dettori into the saddle for that first British winner aboard Lizzie Hare – who was named after Cumani’s secretary at the time. Another profound early influence was Ray Cochrane, who was Cumani’s stable jockey when the mischievous Dettori arrived. It speaks eloquently of Cochrane that he was willing to embrace the boy-wonder when he must have known that the Italian would one day pinch his job. That much became evident when Dettori became the first teenager since Lester Piggott to ride more than 100 winners in a season. By the time he rode his first Group 1 winner, Shamshir at Ascot in 1990, Dettori’s prowess was unmistakable. He was still only 19 years old. Cochrane, for his part, continued riding while the Dettori legend unfolded. But their close alliance was cemented eight years ago by a horrific plane crash from which both men were lucky to escape with their lives. The pilot was killed after the Piper Seneca crashed soon after taking off from Newmarket, ironically bound for Goodwood. “I have known Ray since I was a kid,” Dettori reflects, “so there has always been a close bond between us. But it was he who pulled me from the wreckage and basically saved me. He had always been a guardian angel to me but the crash made our relationship more special.” So much so that Cochrane became Dettori’s agent on the day he retired from the saddle. “He seems to love it,” says Dettori, who has, incidentally, never since flown in a small plane. “He is a very straight man and a lovely person to confide in when I have problems.” In addition to being Dettori’s agent, Cochrane is a BBC racing pundit. While there have been countless career highlights, Dettori’s seminal moment arrived on 28th September 1996. The opportunity to spread his fame beyond racing’s narrow parameters came on an unforgettable afternoon at Ascot. It was a day of sporting perfection: seven winners from as many rides. The last of them was shown live on the BBC, which interrupted the reading of the football results, itself a sacred narrative, to capture the historic moment. What followed was a release of spontaneous joy of which only Dettori is capable. It captured the nation’s hearts. “I will never tire of talking about that day,” the jockey enthuses. “I was the first one ever to go through the card. One day someone will equal or better it, but I was the first. The whole afternoon passed in a blur and I still have Fujiyama Crest (his seventh and final winner) in a paddock at home.” Fujiyama Crest now lives with a collection of ponies belonging to Dettori’s five children from his marriage to Catherine, whom he met in Newmarket. “I owe that horse so much,” Dettori says. “I tried to take him hunting recently, thinking he might enjoy it, but he’s 16 and a little long in the tooth. So now he’s in full retirement.” Retirement is a long way off for Dettori, however, who has ridden more than 2,500 winners to date and feels he still has another 10 years at the top. Three times the champion jockey in Britain, he is in his 15th season as retained rider to Godolphin, the stable run by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai. Their alliance has been fruitful: Dettori is but a handful of Group 1 victories short of the magical 100 for Godolphin. And with more than 400 Group wins to his name in Europe, he is tantalisingly close to Lester Piggott’s record haul of 465. One more thing he craves is to ride a Derby winner for the sheikh. As the world knows, Dettori snapped his Derby jinx at the 15th attempt last year when he steered Authorized To Victory at Epsom, although the colt was not from Godolphin’s stable. “That was the last piece of the jigsaw for me,” he reflects. “I’d already won every other race I wanted to, but I still want to win it for my boss.” The future resonates to further Dettori triumphs in the saddle – and further ‘flying dismounts’ from it, for which he is renowned. And, by his own account, the family name may not disappear from the racecourse on the day he retires. “There could well be a third-generation Dettori among the jockeys’ ranks,” he reveals. “My eldest son, Leo, is keen on his riding and I’m getting a little worried that he likes it too much. To be honest, I’d be a bit nervous if he followed in his dad’s footsteps.” Like many Italians, Dettori is unable to shed himself of numerous superstitions. So when he heard that Goodwood proposed to commemorate the 21st year of his riding that first winner in Britain, he was rather taken aback to find that the relevant fixture falls this year on June 13. “Of all the days they could have picked,” he chuckles, “why does it have to be Friday the 13th?” Whatever comes to pass, Dettori eagerly anticipates the onset of Goodwood’s annual July Meeting. Mind you, this Ferrari-driving speed-freak is not averse to the lure of the motor racing circuit off down the hill. “To me, the revamp of the motor racing programme has added something extra to the whole Goodwood experience,” he says. “There is so much going on there now. The Duke, Lord March and the whole team have taken the Estate to another level.” Over the last decade significant improvements to the horse racing programme means that the July Festival stands comparison with any other rival. “The Sussex Stakes used to dominate the July Meeting but it is only one of the big races now,” Dettori avers. “The Nassau Stakes is getting bigger and bigger; there are a lot of good two-year-old races and the handicaps are as hard to win as any in the country. It always makes for a proper test, which is why we enjoy it so much.” Equally, race goers will enjoy any victory from Dettori, whose riding attracts the blind financial allegiance of many who savour a flutter. It has ever been thus for the man who brings racing to life. |
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