At the time of writing, after 35 years in the saddle, Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori is moving into the final few months of his racing career. The three-time champion jockey is expected to ride for the last time in Britain on British Champions Day at Ascot in October, 2023, before moving on to the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park, California in early November and saying his final farewell at the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington, Victoria a few days later.
Numerically, Dettori enjoyed his most successful season in 1994, when he was in the first year of his retainer with Godolphin, the thoroughbred breeding and racing operation founded by Sheikh Mohammed, Ruler of Dubai, and won his first jockeys’ title, with 233 winners. Highlights of his inaugural season in the now famous royal blue silks included winning the Lockinge Stakes on Emperor Jones, the Oaks on Balanchine and the Yorkshire Oaks on Only Royale, with the latter trained his former mentor, Luca Cumani. However, his total prize money for the season amounted to just £2.8 million.
By contrast, Dettori enjoyed his most successful season, financially, in 2019, six years after parting company with Godolphin and serving a six-month ban, imposed by the French governing body, France Galop, after testing positive for a banned substance, later revealed to cocaine, at Longchamp in September, 2012. In 2019, Dettori only rode 66 winners, but from just 255 rides, at a strike rate of 26% – the highest of his career – and enjoyed what the Americans might call a ‘lollapalooza’, with £7.4 million in prize money on British soil alone. He won the Oaks on Annapurna, trained by JohnGosden, and continued a hugely profitable association with the ten three-time champion trainer until the end of the season. Other Group 1 highlights included the Coral-Eclipse, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Yorkshire Oaks on Enable, the Gold Cup and Goodwood Cup on Stradivarius and the St. Leger on Logician.