A rollercoaster life in the saddle: peaks and troughs of the legend's career

Anyone who watched the feature documentary on Frankie Dettori released last year will have seen that he is a man of extreme highs and bottomless lows. There is rarely anything in the middle when it comes to racing's greatest showman, whose professional life has endured as many peaks and troughs as his personal one.

Dettori's father Gianfranco, a revered rider in his own right, sent his son to Luca Cumani's yard in Newmarket at the age of 14 in 1985. Dettori could not speak a word of English and for the first three months begged his father to allow him to return home to Italy. He never did leave and, pushing four decades later, still calls Newmarket home.

First apprentice to Cumani and then stable jockey, Dettori became the first teenager since Lester Piggott to ride 100 winners in a season in 1990. In the same year he rode his first Group 1 winner when Markofdistinction won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, but fame and fortune came too soon.

Dettori gets a kiss his father Gianfranco after his first big-race victory on Markofdistinction in 1990Credit: Ed Byrne

In 1993, at the age of 22, he was living more for Newmarket's nightlife than its racing and received a wake-up call when caught in possession of a small quantity of drugs on a night out, a misdemeanour that landed him a police caution but ultimately proved far more costly.

Much to Cumani's frustration, Dettori had already decided he wanted to ditch Britain for a more glamorous environment and had agreed to ride in Hong Kong. However, his drugs caution cost him his contract in that strict jurisdiction and, having already burnt his bridges with Cumani, he was left in limbo.

He turned to John Gosden and, with the trainer's backing, came back swinging in 1994. Determined to prove the doubters wrong, he ditched the nightclubs and committed himself to riding winners. He amassed an incredible 233 winners in Britain that year, trumping his dad's personal best of 229. Dettori was back.

His life changed forever at Ascot on September 28, 1996. Riding as first jockey for the powerful Godolphin operation, he was most looking forward to riding Mark Of Esteem in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes as he pulled into the royal racecourse. Mark Of Esteem duly won, but no-one could have predicted what was to come.

Dettori landed all seven races at Ascot that afternoon, costing bookmakers an estimated £40 million and putting himself and British racing into the headlines across the globe. From that moment Frankie Dettori was a household name. No longer just a sportsman, he had become a celebrity.

Frankie Dettori: exclusive interview

"I've had an absolutely amazing career and loved every second of it but you have to know when to let go"

Frankie Dettori opens his heart about his decision to retire in a major interview – exclusively available for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers now and in Sunday's Racing Post

Interview:'I don't want to be someone who gets to 56 and is always sitting on the bench' (£)

Subscribe now:read our exclusive Frankie Dettori interview with our Members' Club special offer

At the turn of the millennium, with the might of Godolphin behind him, Dettori was winning the biggest races across the world. On March 25, 2000, he won the Dubai World Cup aboard Dubai Millennium, the greatest horse Godolphin founder and Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed has ever bred or owned. Dettori felt indomitable, but from the glitzy high of winning the world's richest race, he was about to hit a sobering low.

On June 1 he and weighing-room colleague Ray Cochrane arranged to fly to the meeting at Goodwood from their homes in Newmarket.

In windy conditions, their light aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff. Dettori, who had suffered a fractured right ankle and facial injuries, was trapped with the plane's engines already in flames.

Cochrane managed to free his friend and dragged Dettori clear before the wreckage exploded, but sadly pilot Patrick Mackey lost his life.

Dettori says it took two years for the mental scars to heal, but it did allow him and his father, who has always had exacting standards for his son, to reconcile their differences.

The Racing Post front page on June 2, 2000 with the news of Dettori's horror plane crash that nearly cost him his life

Gianfranco's main wish for his son was for him to win the Derby and in 2007, at the 15th attempt, Dettori finally won the most prestigious Flat race in the world aboard the Peter Chapple-Hyam-trained Authorized.

Sent off the 5-4 favourite, Authorized stormed clear of his rivals for a five-length success, which Dettori celebrated with his father in the winner's enclosure.

Four years after his Derby win, Godolphin set up a second trainer in Newmarket when Mahmood Al Zarooni took control at Moulton Paddocks.

Dettori and Al Zarooni did not see eye to eye and the new trainer turned to Mickael Barzalona for many of the big-named horses in his yard.

Dettori found this hard to take, suffering "anxiety and depression" as well as bouts of bulimia as he turned to food for some crumb of comfort.

When Godolphin's Encke won the 2012 St Leger under Barzalona and Dettori was forced to ride against his employers in the same race, it effectively spelt the end of the rider's partnership with one of the biggest bloodstock operations in the world. However, that was only the start of Dettori's annus horribilis.

In December, 2012, he was banned from race-riding for six months by France Galop, the ruling body of French racing, having returned a positive for a metabolite of cocaine following a random dope test when riding at Longchamp on September 16 the same year.

At rock bottom and with his name tarnished, Dettori joined Claire from Steps, Razor Ruddock and Rylan Clark in the Celebrity Big Brother house before he returned to raceriding in May 2013. He rode just 16 winners from 205 rides in Britain that year, at one stage going 51 rides without success.

With his confidence shattered and career looking like it was petering to an unremarkable end, Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, a member of the Qatari royal family, offered Dettori a contract as his retained rider.

While Sheikh Joaan was only just starting to expand his interest in racing, it offered Dettori a crucial platform from which to re-establish himself. It was nothing short of a lifeline and slowly the rider started to rebuild his broken confidence.

When William Buick signed for Godolphin towards the end of 2014, a vacancy at the Clarehaven Stable of Dettori's great friend Gosden appeared and history goes that Gosden sealed his and Dettori's reunion with the fabled words, "I'll have you back".

A glorious resurrection for Dettori as he wins his second Derby on Golden Horn for his old friend John Gosden in 2015. It was a victory that revitalised his careerCredit: Edward Whitaker

On Dettori's first morning back at Clarehaven in 2015, Gosden gave him the leg up on a promising thee-year-old colt named Golden Horn. Little more than three months later Dettori partnered him to success in the Derby before horse and jockey went on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe later the same season.

Over the next seven years, Gosden and Dettori became arguably the most powerful trainer-and-jockey partnership in the world, with the likes of Enable, Stradivarius, Inspiral, Palace Pier and Too Darn Hot winning some of the sport's most prestigious prizes.

There was a slight blip when trainer and jockey took a "sabbatical" from one another this summer, but the dream team will be back together for one last hurrah in 2023 when Dettori will write the final chapter in one of racing's most compelling stories.

Read more on Frankie Dettori's decision to retire in 2023:

'I have to give up' - Frankie Dettori reveals bombshell retirement next year

John Gosden: 'Keeping such a huge talent mentally in the zone is the challenge' (£)

'I've never seen anyone better' - Stoute leads tributes to daring Dettori

Key dates and races for Frankie Dettori's final year in the saddle - and beyond

Which top horses and potential stars will Frankie Dettori be riding in 2023?

The remarkable facts and figures behind Frankie Dettori's record-breaking career

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