TOP 6: Frankie Dettori

Frankie Dettori lives in the village of Stetchworth, near Newmarket, the center of flat racing in England. He has a wife named Catherine and five children – Leo, Ella, Mia, Tallula, and Rocco. He was born in Milan, Italy, the son of Gianfranco Dettori, an Italian Jockey, and Iris Maria, a circus trapeze artist. 

Frankie’s Youth

Dettori’s father, Gianfranco, got into horse racing when he met the champion trainer Sergio Cumani in Rome and agreed to work in his stables. He learned how to ride horses under Cumani and became a jockey. Frankie had a complicated childhood; his parents divorced shortly after his birth, and he lived with his older sister and his father’s new wife while Gianfranco himself was often away from home as his career as a jockey took off (Gianfranco would become an Italian Champion Jockey 13 times over). His sister frequently argued with his stepmother and father, and she ran away from home when Frankie was 12.  

For Frankie’s eighth birthday, his father bought him a palomino pony named Silvia and Frankie fell in love with horses and racing. When he was just nine years old, Frankie rode Silvia in the Pony Derby at San Siro racecourse, where he came in last and fell off after the finishing line. Sergio Cumani’s son, Luca Cumani, had also become a successful trainer and breeder, and when Dettori decided he wanted to become a jockey, his father sent him to Newmarket in England to be trained by Luca at Bedford House Stables as an apprentice jockey and stable boy. 

Not only was it a culture shock for Dettori to move to England at just 14 years old, but he was also unable to speak English at the time. He was bullied by the other teenagers and felt homesick. However, his father insisted that he stick it out, and Frankie eventually learned English, became friends with his former tormentors, and fell in love with England. He started to ride as an apprentice jockey for Cumani in 1987 and had his first win at Goodwood in June that year. He spent that winter as a work rider in California where he learned to perform the flying dismount from watching Angel Cordero Jr. that would later become Dettori’s trademark, although he was too much in awe of his hero Cordero to meet him that winter (the two would meet for the first time in New York in 1990). When he returned to England from California, his career took off like a rocket and he became champion apprentice jockey with 75 wins in 1989. 

Leaving Godolphin and Suspension

Frankie joined Godolphin, the racing outfit owned by Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai, in 1994, and he was their number one jockey since 1996 with his pick of rides. The two were a great fit together, but when Godolphin expanded in 2012, they brought on a new trainer, Mahmood Al Zarooni, and their working relationship became strained. The new trainer did things differently, and he selected two extra retained jockeys, Mickaël Barzalona and Silvestre de Sousa, for the 2012 racing season. Suddenly, Frankie found himself the fourth jockey in line for the big races without any explanation for the change. Godolphin’s new racing manager, Simon Crisford, added insult to injury when he told the press that “Frankie has to share the cake and he understands that.” 

Needless to say, Dettori was extremely frustrated that he wasn’t getting equal racing opportunities. He won the Irish Champion Stakes in Leopardstown in September that year, but he still struggled to accept Godolphin’s change in direction and his mental health suffered; he developed bulimia, depression, anxiety, heart palpitations, and had difficulty keeping his weight down for racing. After returning from Ireland, Frankie was out drinking and, in a moment of weakness, used cocaine. Eight days later, Dettori rode in trials for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at the Longchamp racecourse in Paris and had to take a drug test. While he anxiously awaited the results, he decided he didn’t want to be sidelined by Godolphin anymore, and it was announced that he would no longer be a retainer jockey for the 2013 season for Godolphin. 

The next month, Dettori received a letter from France notifying him that he failed the drug test. Dettori regretted the mistake and admitted it to the public. He was suspended for six months starting on December 5, 2012, and the ban meant that he would have to miss the 1000 and 2000 Guineas but would be free to ride the Derby in June and the Royal Ascot a few weeks later. During his ban from racing, Frankie joined the reality TV series Celebrity Big Brother in 2013, where he was the fifth person to be evicted from the house.