'I was a tearaway but Barney put his arm around me and made me a better person'
David Jennings catches up with a legend before a special visit to Bellewstown
Frankie Dettori is riding at Bellewstown on Thursday. Now there is a sentence I never thought I would type. Racing's greatest showman will discover one of racing's best-kept secrets, hidden away on top of the hill of Crockafotha in County Meath, to honour the man who kept the greatest secret of all.
In a week when everybody wanted a piece of Dettori, craving anecdotes about the day he changed the face of racing forever – more about that later – he managed to squeeze in an interview via Zoom to chat about the one and only Barney Curley who helped change the face of Frankie forever.
"There were two sides to Barney, two men in the one man," he begins to tell me of the late legendary gambler who famously foiled the layers with the help of a phone box at Bellewstown back in 1975.
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Published on inInterviews
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Copy- 'It's tough financially and last year I said I might get a job driving a lorry instead - although to be fair I'd probably crash!'
- 'I'm not here to tell people how to train but if you hide something from me, I'm gone, I'm done - and you won't see me again'
- 'I had to fly back from Saudi on the day for the awards before flying back the following day but it really was a great evening'
- 'The lads often give out to me for saying what I say - but if I didn't say what I thought I wouldn't be being true to myself'
- 'All anyone wants is a pat on the back and these awards show you mean something to the yard and the people there. It's brilliant'
- 'It's tough financially and last year I said I might get a job driving a lorry instead - although to be fair I'd probably crash!'
- 'I'm not here to tell people how to train but if you hide something from me, I'm gone, I'm done - and you won't see me again'
- 'I had to fly back from Saudi on the day for the awards before flying back the following day but it really was a great evening'
- 'The lads often give out to me for saying what I say - but if I didn't say what I thought I wouldn't be being true to myself'
- 'All anyone wants is a pat on the back and these awards show you mean something to the yard and the people there. It's brilliant'