Frankie goes to Hungary: bumper crowd expected as Dettori makes Kincsem Park debut

Frankie Dettori puts bums on seats and officials at Kincsem Park in Hungary hope that is the case on Saturday when racing's most famous face rocks up at the venue for part of his farewell tour.

The retiring Dettori, having his first starts in the saddle in Hungary, has six rides on the nine-race card, including spins for Ian Williams on Silent Film in a local Group 2 (2.45 BST) and Splendent, who is trained by Paul and Oliver Cole, in the 1m4f Kincsem Stakes, a local Group 1 (4.05) worth €55,000.

Those races have also attracted fellow raiders Sceptic (Andrew Balding) and Tides Of War (David Simcock), and all four horses are owned by Fitri Hay and her husband Jim, who has business links with the Hungarian government which led to the venture.

Botond Kovacs, international liaisons officer at Kincsem Park in the capital Budapest, said on Friday: "We're absolutely thrilled Frankie is coming, and he, Dr Hay and Mrs Hay are going to be treated like royalty.

"They are going to be received by the minister of defence, Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky, who used to be the ambassador to the UK. This is the first time we've hosted English horses and we're over the moon and excited about the prospect of them coming."

Silent Film (blue): one of Frankie Dettori's Hungarian ridesCredit: Alan Crowhurst

Expanding on the link-up, Kovacs added: "The minister and Dr Hay are good friends and the minister is a racing man who goes to Royal Ascot and the Arc. They somehow came up with this, and I wouldn't say it was difficult to get Frankie, but it wasn't a walk in the park either.

"He's a lovely guy who has never ridden in Hungary, but has got as far as Bratislava as he's won the Slovakian Derby. He's looking forward to it and has put a lot of posts about it on his social media platforms.

"In our racing community, he's well known, very renowned and respected. I'm always careful about these things, but we're expecting the crowd to be between 5,000 and 8,000 people. We'd have something lower on our Derby day, but we expect Frankie to attract the crowds. He's a big name and the best jockey in the world.

"He's riding two horses for the Hays and four Hungarian ones. It's racing, but I wouldn't be surprised if he had a couple of winners."

Adam Szotyori Nagy, the new director of Kincsem Park, oversees his first international meeting, which Kovacs is keen on growing.

"We're hoping to have the Kincsem Stakes upgraded to Listed level by the European Pattern Committee, but it's a long process as they have to look at the ratings of the runners," he said.

"Hopefully, it will be an internationally recognised black-type race in the near future, which should open new doors. We hope we can elevate Hungarian racing to the standard we used to have a very long time ago."

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