'I'm not kicking jockeys off horses - owners come to me and ask me to ride'
Julian Muscat finds the top jockey super-excited by what lies in store at Epsom
Initially, Frankie Dettori is delighted when it is put to him that he dominates the Derby build-up like a modern-day Lester Piggott.
“Yes!” says the man who won the Derby for the second time on Golden Horn seven years ago. Then he spots the hidden tripwire and he bursts out laughing.
Last year Dettori was parachuted on to John Leeper’s back at the 11th hour, as he had been 12 months previously when he supplanted Tom Marquand aboard the favourite, English King. This time Gavin Ryan is the hapless victim as Dettori takes over on Piz Badile, a proper dark horse owned by the Niarchos’s Flaxman Stables.
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- 'Other trainers say how difficult it is to get staff, but I can't say the same - when people come here, they seem to stay'
- 'People love having horses with Willy rather than a miserable git like me'
- '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'