sport news Ascot's king Frankie Dettori recounts tales of his encounters with the Queen trends now
Frankie Dettori is having a think and a giggle about other members of royalty. He is at his favourite spot, racing’s palace in Ascot, and the old king is running breathless through some memories.
They are mostly about his mate, the Queen. He knows her heart will always belong to another of the little big men and that would be the late and great Lester Piggott. Always Lester at No 1. Always Lester grabbing him by the crown jewels. But Dettori has learnt to live with being second to his hero and so he is wearing that famous grin and hopping across the weighing room — his weighing room — as he shares a few of his classics.
In time he will get to the story of her majesty and his dog and her carpet, and others about dinner and gin. But for now, as he bounces around in anticipation of Royal Ascot, which starts on June 14, and where he has ridden 76 winners, he wants to begin with a tale of a right royal ‘f*** up’.
Frankie Dettori recounted a hilarious tale of his first encounters with the Queen through racing
‘Whenever I think about Royal Ascot I think about that,’ he says. ‘F****** hell, mate.’
It will be another five minutes before he takes a pause. ‘It was the first day of Royal Ascot in 1994. I was working for Ian Balding, who was the main trainer for the Queen. I was only 23 or something and just having the colours on the peg, the purple and red with the gold tassels, what an honour.
‘But that week, racing for the Queen, was great. First day, there’s a man at the door of the weighing room. It’s Lord Carnarvon, the Queen’s racing manager.
‘I don’t know if you noticed but the more noble you are the bigger the hat and his is huge. He looks down his nose, “Do you know how to address the Queen, boy?” Not really. “You tip your hat, you bow and call her, Your Majesty, then you don’t speak until she speaks. If she does, you finish with Ma’am”.
The legendary jockey will forever have a place in Ascot folklore after his magnificent seven
‘I’m petrified but I went outside, saw her, bowed and said the right things and she doesn’t say a word. Day two, she asks about tactics. I nail it, no f*** up. Day three, we talk about the Gold Cup. I’m getting good at this. “Good to firm, Ma’am”. Then it is Saturday. I’m walking with two jockeys, talking cars and women, and there is none of the commotion you get when the Queen is near. But I glance up and she’s two steps in front of me. In complete shock, I blurt out, “How are ya?” like a mad cockney. She laughs, “I’m still here”, and then Lord Carnarvon kicked me in the shin.’
Dettori is howling before he cuts himself off. ‘My dog p***** on her rug once,’ he says, and away he goes again.
‘I won a big race in 2005 and had a party. I was hammered and left the gates open. At some time in all that my dachshund ran away and we had a call in the morning from the Queen’s racing manager, Caroline, who lived nearby in Newmarket. “We found your dog, but we are just going to pick up the Queen from Sandringham and we are going somewhere — meet us there at 7pm.”
The jockey recounted a story of when his dog wee'd on a Persian carpet at the Queen's residence
‘I shout out to the window to my wife Catherine, “Hey, the Queen has our dog”. She shouts back, “F*** off”, doesn’t believe me. I get my daughter, Ella, who was little, and we get dressed up, her and me. We arrive and the Queen is immaculate in a purple dress, having a gin and tonic next to the fire. She was talking to Ella and it was lovely, but then they let the dog out and it was so excited it p***** on the Persian carpet. OK Frankie, time to go.’
He is banging a fist on the table as he laughs. ‘I always love being around the Queen and it is one reason I love Royal Ascot. I come to life here. It is a special place and she is wonderful — she loves racing and meeting her is such a privilege. But… Lester she loves most.’
Piggott — the greatest Flat racer of them all, 116 Ascot winners. This interview was conducted shortly before his death, but the Queen was not alone in her deep affection for a man later described by Dettori as his ‘friend and hero’.
‘He will always be her favourite,’ says Dettori. ‘I went to Windsor Castle this one year for a pre-Ascot dinner. I was talking to her and then she suddenly says, “Frankie, go get me Lester”. That is me told. He is ahead of me.’
No one else can quite make the same claim. At Ascot and almost any other field where folk play sport.
Frankie Dettori at last week's Epsom Derby meeting - the jockey has no plans to stop riding
It is a funny old spot, the weighing room. And he is a funny old guy, Frankie Dettori. His dad, was once the most famous jockey in Italy and his mum was a circus performer; the son took from both and he has been sharing it with the rest of us for 35 seasons now.
He will be 52 before this year is out and when he talks about the life cycle of a jockey, it is told in the context of one’s place in a weighing room. Like their horses, jockeys have a hierarchy; like horses, they all have their time, even the wild boy who never grew up. It terrifies him.
‘I know the end will come,’ he says, and for once in this conversation he offers no punchline.
Frankie Dettori alongside trainer Donnacha O'Brien at Epsom last Saturday ahead of the Derby
‘It scares me. My dad, Gianfranco, is 81, he told me, “One day it will come, so ride as long as you can”. People ask always when I will retire and I try to talk about other
