Did Champion Jockey Frankie Dettori Ever Triumph at the Cheltenham Festival?
Few jockeys are as renowned in horse racing as Frankie Dettori. He’s right up there with the jump legends like AP McCoy and Ruby Walsh as a character who not only rode plenty of winners, but also transcended the sport to cement himself in the public consciousness. Even casual spectators of the sport knew of Dettori in his day.
Only last year did he begin his path to retirement. The jockey born in Milan rode his last in the UK in 2023, having conquered the British Classic Races time and time again, going on to take on the biggest US races over the next couple of years. After a tour of South America, aged 55, the flat race titan called it a day on February 1.
The son of an Italian champion jockey is never too far from the sport. He’s taken on just about every flat course race in the UK and many of the most prestigious ones overseas. Even so, as a flat race rider, Dettori may have missed out on some of the most prestigious prizes in the sport by not jumping at the Cheltenham Festival.
Dettori’s Jumped, But Not in That Way
Frankie Dettori’s storied career goes all the way back to the 1980s. He made an apprentice jockey under trainer Luca Cumani in Newmarket in early 1987. By June of that year, he’d secured his first win on British soil, riding Lizzy Hare at Goodwood. Having taken eight horses to first, he spent the 1987/88 winter over in California.
It’s here that he learned to jump, or rather, fly. Here, Ángel Cordero Jr was working alongside the work rider under trainer Richard Cross. The Puerto Rican not only helped Dettori get adjusted to the new scenery, but also how to pull off what would become Dettori’s trademark move.
The coming seasons could be grouped as his wild child years. Still quite the character between races, his concentration lapsed up until his arrest in April 1993. After that, he’d finish the season on 149 winners as a freelance rider, setting his sights on the 1994 Jockey Championship.
With 233 British winners to his name, he made good on his goal to win the first of what would eventually be three Jockey Championships. It was also in 1994 that his trademark move would be debuted. Astride Barathea at the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Mile, after the win, he sprang from the saddle for his first of many flying dismounts.
Among the most recognised and decorated flat race jockeys of British racing history, his absurdly long career is unlikely to be matched any time soon. It’d also take quite the character to entrench themselves in the hearts and minds of race fans quite like Dettori did. Even so, there wasn’t a crossover for the Italian, and he didn’t ride in a jump competition officially.
Post-Racing Career Has Featured a Jumps Win
Being such a character in racing, you can bet that Dettori had plenty of opportunities come his way after he finally hung up his saddle for the last time. Even before his final ride, though, he was already entrenched on the other side of the sport. Dettori has been breeding horses for years, and has even had a bunch of winners.
Back in 2015, Frankie Dettori won at Cheltenham as a breeder. Trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Sam Twiston-Davies in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, Dettori’s horse Dodging Bullets blitzed ahead of two previous winners and a spirited run to second by Special Tiara to edge it on the home straight.
Dettori was at Cheltenham to watch his horse run the famed jump race. Entering as the third-favourite at odds of 9/2, Dodging Bullets’ run perhaps made the Italian one of the first people to both ride a Derby winner and breed a Festival winner. Since then, he’s been keeping busy in other arenas, banking on his celebrity status in and out of the sport.
One of his most prominent moves has been to licence out his name, likeness, and legend to online casino developer Playtech. Two of the top games in the series, Frankie Dettori Sporting Legends and Frankie Dettori’s Magic Seven, are found at the top five sites for a £20 deposit bonus. At Betano, there’s a £20 slot bonus of 20 wager-free spins worth £1 each on the hit game Eye of Horus. The lack of wagering requirements means that anything won from those spins can be withdrawn or played as real money – as opposed to bonus money, on other games, like the Dettori suite of slots and jackpots.
Dettori was also a favourite for the crew behind the Netflix docu-series into US flat racing. Race for the Crown was a surprise hit on the streamer among their many dives into sports for this format. They’ve said that “Frankie gave us amazing access,” which is undoubtedly part of why the show was so captivating for fans and entertainment-seekers alike.
Legend Frankie Dettori may have never ridden a winner at the Cheltenham Festival, but the flat race maestro does get to claim a winner at the famed jump event as a breeder. Maybe one day, he’ll come back for another triumph.
