Section:OBS 2S PaGe:20 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 3/8/2019 17:10 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Observer
20 04.08.19 Sport
Final word
I
n the late 1990s, when Frankie Dettori was
already well-established as the biggest name
in racing, he happened to be sitting at the next
table to mine at the Lesters, an annual awards
when, for one night only, Britain’s jockeys let
their hair down and party. Dinner was served, a
waiter appeared to offer him a selection of vegetables
and for several seconds Dettori cast a melancholic gaze
at a tray of buttered new potatoes with a look that said
much about the denial in a jockey’s life. Fame, fortune
and Classic winners are fi ne but for a moment he looked
ready to give it all up for a plate of spuds.
He certainly did not look like someone who would
still be riding big-race winners at 48, and an extended
career seemed more implausible still when he was
banned from the saddle for six months in December
2012, having tested positive for cocaine after a ride in
France. By then Dettori had already lost the retainer
with Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation that had
guaranteed a steady supply of champions to ride for 20
years. He could look forward only to grubbing around in
racing’s undergrowth when he returned to action – if he
returned to action at all.
Seven years later Dettori is not only back at the
pinnacle of his profession but quite possibly in the
middle of the best season of his entire career. The glory
years with Godolphin were good but at his current rate
of progress never as good as this. In 2001 Dettori rode
16 Group One or Grade One winners. This season he
has already bagged 11, with the biggest prizes of the
campaign still to come.
All sports offer up examples of champions and
legends who competed well into their 30s or even their
40s. Stanley Matthews and WG Grace were still playing
in their 50s. And no round-up of sporting veterans
would be complete without a mention for Gordie Howe,
who played ice hockey in the NHL across fi ve different
decades and was the originator of the “Gordie Howe
Hat-Trick”: a goal, an assist and a fi ght, all in the same
game.
Superstars, all of them. But how many sporting greats
were at their very best, or even close, in their fi nal years?
And how many had a season in the twilight of their
careers that not only matched but bettered anything that
had gone before? Roger Federer remains a marvel, able
to reach and almost win a Wimbledon men’s fi nal at 37 ,
but he is never going to improve on his 2006 season,
when he reached all four grand slam fi nals and won
three.
Dettori, though, is six Group One winners away from
the best season of his life, 32 years after riding his fi rst
winner in June 1987. That, admittedly, is six more than
most jockeys can hope to win in their entire careers and
will not be easily achieved. Legendary status does not
confer immunity from injury either, as Jimmy Anderson
knows only too well. As recently as Friday Dettori was
thrown when his horse stumbled just after the line. He
needs to stay lucky. But if he can maintain his current
strike-rate, Dettori will win his 17th Group One race of
2019 some time before he arrives at Longchamp in earlyOctober to ride the almost equally astonishing Enable in
her attempt to win an unprecedented third Prix de l’Arc
de Triomphe. That meeting marks the start of a frantic
six weeks of championship racing in Europe and beyond
that will offer many more opportunities to add to his
career total of nearly 250 top-level wins.L
ester Piggott is the only other jockey in
the last half -century to approach Dettori’s
level of success, public recognition and
durability. He was the champion jockey 11
times while Dettori has claimed only three
titles, in 1994, 1995 and 2004 (although
one could have stopped 100 people on the street in
every year since and asked them to name the champion
jockey and Dettori would have topped the poll every
time). Piggott also rode a Classic winner at 56 and came
up with one of the greatest rides of all time on Royal
Academy a few weeks after reapplying for a jockey’s
licence and two years after he emerged from prison,
having served 12 months for tax evasion.
But while one could argue which of Piggott’s many
seasons in the saddle was the greatest, the obvious
candidates are in the 60s and 70s, probably headed up
by Nijinsky’s Triple Crown season in 1970. Dettori, at 48,
is raising his own bar.
Some may argue that comparisons with other sports
are meaningless. In racing, after all, the horse is the
primary athlete. Falls are, thankfully, occasional and
Dettori does not have to put up with the constant, bone-
shaking batterings that, say, an NFL quarterback like
Tom Brady – who won his sixth Super Bowl at 4 1 thisyear – accepts as routine. So it is worth considering what
it is that a jockey actually does.
A rider cannot turn a donkey into a Derby winner
or persuade any horse to run any faster than its genes
and physiology allow. The job is to steer a path from
the starting stalls to the fi nishing line as quickly and
effi ciently as possible while a dozen or more fellow
jockeys are trying to do the same and it requires a rare
blend of strength, balance and quicksilver thinking
amid the bustle and bedlam of a race. A horse covers fi ve
lengths per second in the closing stages of a race. Losing
0.02sec in the course of a one-and-half -mile contest
could be the difference between victory and defeat.
The passage of time should really take its toll on all of
a jockey’s essential qualities, not least when many Flat
riders in particular are operating on a diet that teeters
on the edge of malnourishment. But Dettori’s powers
seem stronger than ever. Every racing fan has a favourite
Dettori moment from the past 30 years, and for many it
may still be the seventh winner at Ascot on his day of all
days.
My pick would be the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa
Anita in 2008 , when Dettori was riding Raven’s Pass
against Curlin, the hot favourite and winner of the race a
year earlier. The track commentator gave Curlin a huge
shout on the turn for home – “and look at Curlin go ...
is this believable?” – but even as he charged round the
turn, the eye was drawn to the horse and jockey who had
followed him throughout as if attached to the favourite
by a tow-rope. It remains the only win in the Classic
for a horse trained in Great Britain, and Dettori – a late
replacement for Jimmy Fortune – was at his brilliant best.
He is still adding fresh memories too, including a
four-timer that nearly brought the betting industry to
its knees at Ascot two months ago. Enable is heading
for Paris, and Too Darn Hot, this week’s Sussex Stakes
winner, towards the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Flat racing
needs to cherish these moments because it does not get
better than this.Enable’s ageless pilot
is having a season
in his twilight years
to match his glorious
best, says Greg WoodDettor i’s second act shows there is life
beyond 40 for racing’s favourite son
Grandstand
A sporting view
Frankie Dettori needs six Group one
victories to surpass his previous best season
and if he can stay lucky will almost certainly
do so 32 years after his fi rst winner
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