Dettori appearance at Royal Ascot next year would not surprise Gosden

Tony Kelshaw
October 22, 2023 10:57 am

Long-time ally fully supportive of California move.

John Gosden admits he has already teased Frankie Dettori about the prospect of him returning to Britain for Royal Ascot next summer.

Dettori enjoyed a memorable farewell to European racing when partnering Trawlerman and King Of Steel to victory on Qipco British Champions Day at Ascot.

He will now head off to the Breeders’ Cup, the Melbourne Cup and Hong Kong’s international meeting before setting up camp in California on a full-time basis.

QIPCO British Champions Day – Ascot Racecourse – Saturday 21st October — Jockey Frankie Dettori and trainer John Gosden after Trawlerman’s win at Ascot

However, Gosden feels there will be a clear pathway leading the Italian legend towards being back at Ascot for the Royal meeting in 2024.

Speaking on Racing TV’s Luck on Sunday programme, the trainer said: “It’s very clear to me. I teased him, I said I know what’s going to happen.

“You’re going to ride in California, you’ll ride all the Middle East festivals – Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi, Dubai – that gets you to the end of March. You try to find a Kentucky Derby horse, that takes you to May.

“Oh, funny thing, Royal Ascot is coming up! And I said you and John Velazquez, who is a great friend of his, you’ll be competing for rides at Ascot.”

Gosden and Dettori have shared many great days on the racecourse during what was initially intended to be the jockey’s final year of competitive race-riding, and he believes the decision to carry on across the Atlantic is the right one.

A final flying dismount for Frankie Dettori in Britain - or is it? — A final flying dismount for Frankie Dettori in Britain – or is it? (John Walton/PA)

“We’ve been discussing this for three or four months and Frankie and I have talked it through,” said Gosden.

“It’s very clear that you can’t stop stone cold and go cold turkey, that is something that would not suit him in one way.

“Brian O’Driscoll, the great centre for Ireland, talks about it in After The Roar; as an athlete, it is always said that you don’t die once, you die twice. Frankie and I discussed this and he actually used the quote on TalkSPORT the next day.

“The point is, that if you’ve been completely committed every day – to training, business, riding horses, rugby, whatever – you are in a zone and it’s very hard suddenly to stare at a vacuum.

“The other thing Frankie feeds on is the crowd, we saw a very good example of that yesterday, while in a rugby game, you have a cauldron around you and suddenly that’s gone.

Frankie Dettori with his wife, Catherine, at Ascot on Saturday (John Walton/PA)

“That’s why a lot of them collapse, their mind just goes and they start hitting the bottle and everything else.

“So, for any athlete to stop, you die then, when you retire – and then you die when you die.

“I think for him, he couldn’t face that, so we talked about California and that was planned from a long way out.

“He enjoyed his time there last year, he’s got himself a place in Pasadena and Catherine (Dettori) has got bored with the dark winters that we have here, so it’s worked well.”