UK Horse Racing Tips

Lanfranco “Frankie” Dettori rode his first winner in Britain in 1987 and, for much of his career, was synonymous with the royal blue silks of the Godolphin organisation, founded by Sheikh Mohammed in 1994. Indeed, on an extraordinary afternoon at Ascot in 1996 Godolphin contributed the majority of his so-called “Magnificent Seven”, when he rode the winner of each of the seven races on the card.

However, the popular Italian was demoted in the Godolphin pecking order in 2012, finally severing all ties with the organisation to become freelance and subsequently served a six-month ban after testing positive for cocaine. On his return to race riding, a frustrating lack of rides led Dettori to seriously consider retirement at the end of the 2013 season.

Thankfully, he was rescued from the doldrums by Sheikh Joaan al Thani, the co-founder of Al Shaqab Racing, who appointed him as retained jockey. Dettori finished a forgettable season with just 16 winners – his lowest total for 25 years – but, the following year, renewed his association with former champion trainer John Gosden, who’d supported him many years before.

Fast forward to 2017 and Dettori rode a highly respectable 63 winners from 237 rides in Britain, at a strike rate of 25%, for a level stakes profit of 45.55 points. He also became the first jockey to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe five times, on the superstar filly Enable – fittingly trained by John Gosden – who was recording her fifth Group One victory of the season.

Dettori has been crowned champion Flat jockey three times and while, at the age of 47, he is unlikely to scale those heights again, 30 years, 15,000 races and 3,000-odd winners since he joined Luca Cumani as an apprentice, we haven’t seen the last of his famous flying dismount.

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