Frankie Dettori may be out of sight and out of the minds of the British racing public a year after postponing his retirement for a new life in America. But when he comes out for the first of his eight Breeders’ Cup rides this weekend, he will have a spring in his step that was absent for his last few years in Britain.
The change in continent and climate has wrought a change in Dettori. At 53, he is fitter, lighter, keener, fresher, hungrier, better even and, according to his wife Catherine, happier than he has been for years.
The daily grind of slogging round Britain was a chore that demotivated him to the point he was riding only on high days and bye days and purposely taking fewer than 200 rides a year. His final year in Britain saw him take just 126 rides. His 30 winners netted £5.8 million in prize money.
In the US, his whole outlook has changed.
With a month still to run before he returns to Britain for a break and his birthday, and the small matter of $34 million up for grabs this weekend, he has ridden 410 horses, 72 winners, including six in a row at Santa Anita on Derby day in April, for $12 million (£9.2 million).
But very evident in his demeanour ahead of the 41st Breeders’ Cup is that his life now is about an awful lot more than the money. It is also about the change and the challenge. Frequently he takes more rides in a day than he did in a week in Britain and, though technically working harder, he still has more time to smell the roses.
“I’m busier but you don’t have the strenuous headache of driving, that’s the absolute killer,” he explained while pressing the flesh outside the breakfast tent in Del Mar. “The good thing here is you ride Wednesday to Sunday, three days off, you don’t have to travel. You start at 12, finish at 5, job done, seven or eight rides in between. It’s beautiful. I’m rejuvenated. Yes.
“I’ve got to be lighter and I’m fitter because I’m riding a lot more and am in the gym every day but being over 50 is very accepted here. There are 10 of us, top riders, all over 50. Me and Mike [Smith] were having a drink recently and I said, ‘Mike, if you go to 60, I go to 60.’ He turned around and said, ‘I’ve only got 18 months left.’ I’ve got six years. As long as I’m fit and getting the rides. I don’t ride that many like Tyler Gaffalione or the Ortiz brothers who ride 12 a day. I ride maybe four, five or six, 10 on the big days.
“The day before I rode six straight, I rode nine in Florida. I flew overnight and I was lying in the bath thinking, ‘I wonder if I can even finish the day’, let alone win six. Ironically, none of them were favourites and the one that was, Bob Baffert’s in the Derby, got beat!
“This wouldn’t have suited me 10 years ago when I wanted to go out every night. It’s completely different. Now Catherine and I eat at 5.30pm and are in bed by 8.30.”
There are new ambitions too, like becoming only the second jockey in history after Steve Cauthen to win both the Derby and Kentucky Derby. Like finding a colt on whom he could win America’s “Run for The Roses” at Churchill Downs.
“My whole thing is to find a good horse for the Kentucky Derby and now that Bob Baffert is back in the picture [he was banned from having runners in Kentucky until the end of the year] the chances are better,” he explained. “I had a ride this year, Society Man, but he was 50-1. If you come to America you want to be competitive in the biggest race they’ve got and that’s the Kentucky Derby.”
The challenge of having to re-establish himself, on both turf and dirt, has also spurred him on but, as Hall of Fame former jockey Sandy Hawley pointed out, he has succeeded. “Amazing,” said Hawley, shaking his head. “He’s a tremendous rider and to do this well? It’s a very tough circuit he’s trying to break into, he’s done amazing.”
Steve Andersen, who has spent 30 years reporting on racing for the Daily Racing Form, said they thought Dettori was coming for the epilogue but it has proved far from it.
“He just seems so enthusiastic,” said Andersen, “and I’m not saying it was like 1996 [the jockey’s “Magnificent Seven” at Ascot], but he went through the first six races at Santa Anita on Derby day in April, he very nearly won the seventh, only got beat a neck.
“There was an immediate appreciation from people who knew the international sport of racing that he was here and enjoying himself. He’s taught people who he is, some Americans didn’t know who the dude was, but now they do.
“He’s not exactly a shy man – he’s gonna sign an autograph or two on the path back to the jockeys’ room, he’s going to visit with the customers and racing in America needs that terribly, a bit of interaction. We’ve seen a rejuvenation. I remember talking to him about a year ago and asking him if he felt like he’d kind of re-booted himself and he thought ‘yes’.”
Dettori is not the only member of his family who is enjoying the ride either. Catherine is equally happy that there is a quality to their time together now which was not possible at home.
“I think it’s the lifestyle,” she said. “The travelling is hellish in Britain, you’re getting back so late and if you’re trying to be sensible about your diet you need to eat early, chill out, recheck your brain for tomorrow and you can’t do that if you get back at 9pm.”
On this, Dettori joked: “I hadn’t seen her for the last 25 years in Britain!
“We’ve tried to do as much sightseeing as possible. Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee, the Johnny Cash Museum, the Lakes, New York, San Francisco, Vegas, the shows. New Orleans is the next one we’d like to do – we’re desperate for that.
“We’ve done California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Florida, Baltimore, Maryland, done half the country and there’s still more to see. It might sound like there’s a lot of travelling but you fly and stay near the track for the meet. At Saratoga, I took a golf buggy to the races – I could have walked.”
He will return home for a break in December but he will be back in Los Angeles before Christmas because Santa Anita starts on Boxing Day. And there is no way the new Dettori is going to miss out on the chance of finding a horse to take him to Louisville in May.
