• PA Sport Reporters
• December 26, 2022 3:22 pm

Perhaps the greatest ever is a household name around the world.

Frankie Dettori has been pure box office for racing – one of those rare figures to cross the divide from the back pages to the front.

Ebullient, effervescent, magical – just a sample of the adjectives one could attach to peak Dettori moments throughout his illustrious near 40-year career, which will come to a close at the end of 2023, following the announcement of the Italian’s impending retirement.

Those qualities allowed him to transcend the barriers and branch out into such themes as restaurants, food companies and even a yogurt endorsement in Europe.

Dettori, 52, has had few peers in the weighing room, and fewer that could come close to matching his burning ambition. Combine those two priceless commodities and great things happen.

More often than not for Dettori, greatness happened on the big occasion.

There were unquestionably some lows, too, and in one form or another it has been headlines all the way from the day Milan-born Dettori rode his first British winner at Goodwood back in 1987.

Son of the prolific Gianfranco Dettori, Lanfranco, to give him his full name, was dispatched to Newmarket as a 14-year-old to learn his trade with Luca Cumani.

The now-retired Cumani described Dettori as “a bit wild, but I think we put him straight”, and that grounding was to provide the fledging rider with his first century of winners as a teenager in 1990, as well as his first Group One on Markofdistinction.

Plenty had him marked as the next Lester Piggott – in fact record-breaking trainer Mark Johnston said at this year’s Royal Ascot: “No disrespect to Lester Piggott, but isn’t Frankie Dettori just the greatest jockey?”

An indiscretion for possessing a small amount of cocaine in 1993 proved a momentary blip as his star continued to rise with a first British Classic winner and champion jockey title soon under his belt, as he struck up a lucrative partnership with Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation.

Saturday, September 28, 1996 then marked Dettori’s passage into sporting folklore as he punched his way into the wider public consciousness with his ‘Magnificent Seven’ at Ascot – winning all seven races at mind-bogglingly huge odds. It seemed the only way was up.

However, in June 2000, Dettori was lucky to escape with his life after he and fellow jockey Ray Cochrane were aboard a light aircraft that crashed shortly after take-off, killing the pilot.

Dettori, who broke his ankle, was dragged from the wreckage by Cochrane, who suffered career-ending injuries in the crash, with Dettori subsequently appointing his former weighing-room colleague as his agent.

Back in winning action barely two months later, it was business as usual for the all-conquering Godolphin team in the following years, with Classic winners Kazzia and Blue Bunting, Dubai World Cup hero Electrocutionist and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass underlining his partnership with Sheikh Mohammed.

That relationship fell apart in spectacular fashion at the end of 2012, with Dettori opting to walk away after perceiving a decline in his status within Godolphin.

His decision to ride the Aidan O’Brien-trained Scorpion for Sheikh Mohammed’s great rivals Coolmore in the 2005 St Leger had raised eyebrows and prompted a public show of contrition from Dettori, but in deciding to ride Camelot for the same connections in the 2012 Arc, Dettori knowingly pressed the destruct button.

But there was worse to come, as it was revealed in December that year he had tested positive for cocaine when riding in France earlier in the year, September to be precise, with a six-month ban handed out by the French authorities.

Dettori later pointed to the stresses involved with the Godolphin situation as a primary driver, saying in a frank interview with Clare Balding for Channel 4 News that disgraced trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni – given an eight-year worldwide ban for doping a number of his horses – had “ruined” his career.

The rider did not sit idle during his enforced spell in the wilderness, appearing on the 2013 edition of Celebrity Big Brother before returning to action with much fanfare on Oaks day at the end of May.

There was no glorious comeback on that occasion and it took Dettori a week to return to the winner’s enclosure, with that perhaps proving a portent to a couple of difficult years.

Despite securing a nice retainer as rider to owner Sheikh Joaan Al Thani, of Al Shaqab Racing, soon after his return, fortune did not smile on Dettori as a fall at Nottingham just days before the Arc saw him break his ankle and miss the ride on Longchamp heroine Treve.

To add insult to injury, he was taken off that filly at the behest of trainer Criquette Head-Maarek in her Arc repeat the following year, having to watch on from back in the pack as Thierry Jarnet steered Treve home.

While his Al Shaqab link did provide a Classic winner in 2016 Guineas hero Galileo Gold, it was revisiting his connection with trainer John Gosden that really kick-started a golden autumn to his riding days – with 2019 seeing him perform at a level even he had perhaps never reached before.

Dettori enjoyed an association with Gosden before being scooped up by Godolphin back in the 1990s and a return to familiar ground saw him blossom again in the autumn of his career.

Derby and Arc wins on Golden Horn in 2015 heralded Dettori’s true return to the top table, while Cracksman’s two Champion Stakes wins among other Group One strikes and Stradivarius’ domination of the staying division have also done their bit.

He has also been back riding for Sheikh Mohammed’s family, but it was the Khalid Abdullah-owned Enable who really helped cement Dettori’s legendary status. His appreciation of the mare and her achievements was never clearer than after her Yorkshire Oaks victory in August.

While Dettori is a natural showman, his emotions are usually in check – just about – but the tears of joy he shed following Enable’s British swansong at York spoke volumes about the debt he owes to the multiple Arc winner.

When he does find a quiet moment to reflect, he will no doubt again toast the horse responsible for putting such an exclamation mark on his career.

Of course the Dettori-Gosden axis was not without its own moments, with Royal Ascot 2022 proving a real flashpoint that threatened to prise the long-time allies apart.

For a second year running, Dettori appeared to have got it wrong aboard Stradivarius in the Gold Cup, before narrow reverses for two royal runners later on the card seemed to ratchet up the tension even further.

Not even Inspiral’s Coronation Stakes win the following day seemed to do much to soothe tensions, with a week of speculation and plenty of newsprint followed by the announcement of a indefinite mutual “sabbatical” between the two.

The indefinite ended up being a matter of days, with Dettori back on board some Clarehaven runners by the time the July meeting rolled around, and Gosden feeling his overall message had certainly not been lost in translation.

A relative storm in a teacup, it was just another of the numerous peaks and troughs of what has been a truly memorable career, which owes plenty to Dettori’s wife Catherine too, with the mother of his five children standing resolutely by his side throughout.

There was never a dull moment with Frankie. And while racing can gear up for what will hopefully be one last year packed full of Dettori magic, it must also face the rather grim reality of a future without its greatest draw.

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