Frankie: The Autobiography of Frankie Dettori
Irresistible to the punters, champion jockey Frankie Dettori is a charismatic personality with an easy charm and immaculate dress sense that make him an instant favourite on the track and a household name off it. His autobiography has been fully updated to include Frankie’s record-breaking racing exploits in 2004.In his own words, Frankie Dettori charts his rise from stable lad to champion jockey, revealing the endless hours of hard work, the fun along the way, and his determination to succeed against the odds.Frankie relives his nine Classic winners in the UK and talks about his notable victories at the St Leger, The Breeder’s Cup Mile, the Arc de Triomphe, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and, memorably, his seven winners on the same card at Ascot in 1996. He also shares the secrets of his successful partnerships with trainers like Luca Cumani and John Gosden, and owners such as Sheikh Mohammed of the Goldolphin organisation.This is also a human interest story. Frankie talks openly about using drugs to keep his weight down, his celebrity role as team captain on ‘A Question of Sport’, his rich and varied lifestyle outside of racing, including his family and inner circle, and of the moment when he almost lost his life following a plane crash.Controversial, informative and hugely entertaining, Frankie Dettori’s life story will appeal to the millions of people who follow the sport as well as those intrigued to know more about one of the greatest talents that horse-racing has ever seen.
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Frankie
The Autobiography of
FRANKIE DETTORI with JONATHAN POWELL
To my dad Gianfrancowho never doubted that I would make itas a jockey, even when I was not sure.A thousand thanks.
Table of Contents
One: I Knew I Was Going to Die
Three: Lost in My Father’s Shadow
Five: I Used to Cry Myself to Sleep
Seven: Priceless Lessons in California
Eleven: Giving in to Temptation
Thirteen: Arrested with Cocaine in My Pocket
Fourteen: Sheikh Mohammed Offers a Lifeline
Seventeen: Godolphin Comes Calling
Eighteen: The Bookies Were Crying for Mercy
Nineteen: Nobody Had Done It Before
Twenty: A Brief Encounter at Epsom
Twenty-one: Nightmare in Kentucky
Twenty-two: A Horse in a Million
Twenty-three: A Miraculous Escape
Twenty-four: In the Grip of Lester
Twenty-five: An Emotional Night in New York
Twenty-six: A Question of Sport
Twenty-seven: Slow Boat to China
Death came calling with terrifying suddenness on a bleak summer’s day in 2000. It happened as Ray Cochrane and I were taking off in a small plane from Newmarket racecourse on the sort of routine flight to the races that had been part of my daily schedule for the past fifteen years.
One moment we were sitting side by side in the rear seats as our Piper Seneca bumped alarmingly along the grass runway on that wet and windy June morning. The next I knew with horrible certainty that I was about to die as our little plane, fatally damaged on take-off, struggled to reach a height of perhaps 100 feet before plunging towards Devil’s Dyke, a huge ancient bank and ditch that lies between the July track and the main course at Newmarket.
White smoke was already streaming from a crippled engine, and there were the first signs of flickering flames as our doomed aircraft tilted crazily onto its right side, hampered from the lack of full power when we needed it most. In front of us our pilot Patrick Mackey was fighting manfully at the controls to keep us in the air long enough to avoid the dyke on our way down, but his task was impossible from the moment the right-wing engine propeller gouged into the ground just before lift-off.
Not too many people in full health know beyond doubt that they have only a few seconds to live. Ray was icy calm as we waited for the impact that would end it all. Next to him I wasn’t so controlled.
‘We’re going to die mate, we’ve had it!’ I screamed.
So many people have asked me what it was like to stare death in the face. It’s impossible to explain because it all seemed to happen so quickly. I was certain that it was all over, finished, as if somebody had pressed a button to end my life. I was also terrified that it was going to hurt like hell, but my main feeling was one of disappointment at the waste of it all, that I would never see my wife Catherine and little boy Leo again.
The left wing tip was just about vertically above the other wing as we dived towards the bank and the ground rushed up to meet us. If we’d crashed nose first onto the dyke we would all have been killed instantly, no question—smashed to pieces like flies on a car windscreen.
By some miracle Patrick nearly managed to clear the dyke—until the extreme tip of the right wing clipped the top of the bank. This sent us cartwheeling into the ground on the other side of the ditch. The noise of the impact seemed to last forever.
It was a nightmare sound I’ll never forget.
At a time like this you have no control over your fate. If the plane had ended upside down we would all have been trapped in the wreckage and burned to death. There would have been no escape as more than sixty gallons of aviation fuel ignited. Even though we settled the right way up, the force of the impact left Ray unconscious for a few seconds, and I was out of it too.
When we came to our senses we were still strapped in our seats, with the passenger door on my left squashed in on top of me. No escape route there. In front of us poor Patrick was slumped unconscious over the controls, flames were coming from the engines and the horrible smell of fuel was overpowering. I was already aware of a dreadful pain in my right leg. There was also so much blood on my face from deep cuts on my forehead that I thought I’d been blinded. Ray immediately took charge, thank goodness, or I wouldn’t be here to tell the tale.
Spotting that the tiny door used to stow baggage immediately behind my seat was ajar, he kicked the rest of it out, then squeezed forward again to undo my seat belt, dragged me backwards and pushed me out of the narrow opening. The drop onto the ground was probably no more than eighteen inches but I landed on my injured ankle and immediately began screaming from the pain, unable to move.
