As legendary jockey Frankie Dettori embarks upon the next chapter of his life and faces the threat of jail time, it is worth a closer look at his extraordinary story so far.
The 55-year-old leapt from his horse in victory for the final time last month in Brazil – bringing down the curtain on a wildly successful 35-year career.
Ever the entertainer, the charismatic Italian’s life away from the track has been colourful to say the least and he’s made plenty of headlines over decades in the public eye, often for the wrong reasons.
A shadow has been cast over Dettori’s last few months in the saddle, with the flat-racer made bankrupt despite raking in £20m over the course of his professional career.
The three-time champion jockey has been involved in a long-running wrangle with HMRC and in December 2024 said he had been ‘working hard to unravel the mess that I have been put in’ by a financial adviser.
No solution was found, though, and Dettori was declared bankrupt. That bankruptcy has now been extended by a year after he was said to have failed to fully disclose his assets.
Frankie Dettori, pictured after winning his final race, has now retired as a professional jockey
At a specialist insolvency court in London earlier this month, not attended by Dettori or any representative, trustees overseeing the process gave a damning assessment.
Nicholas Briggs, chief insolvency and companies court judge, said there was a ‘blatant failure’ by Dettori to provide information when asked.
He added: ‘There is much to uncover in this bankruptcy, and it may well be that criminal sanctions will be a useful tool for the trustees.’
Dettori had told the trustees last year that he did not own properties abroad, but it was later found he ‘had not disclosed properties, in particular in France and Italy’.
The judge said there were ‘other concerns’ – including a Piaget watch, a wine collection reportedly worth £70,000 and investments totaling £365,000.
It is a remarkable situation for Dettori, who rode more than 3,300 winners during his glittering career and who famously had seven victories from seven rides at Ascot in September 1996, which came to be known as ‘The Magnificent Seven’ and led to lucrative spin-off deals.
The total amount owed to HMRC as of last October was £765,000 and £6,391 to a car leasing company. Combined with liquidator costs, the bill reached £888,799, which is set to be largely footed by the taxpayer.
When his bankruptcy came to light last year, he said in a statement shared with Daily Mail Sport: ‘I am saddened and embarrassed by this outcome and would advise others to take a stronger rein over their financial matters.
‘Bankruptcy is a major decision and its consequences will affect me for many years.’
Dettori, pictured with his wife Catherine, was given a bankruptcy extension earlier this month
The strategy, which a financial adviser proposed, involved making large ‘tax-deductible’ payments, over five years, into a trust which then made large ‘non-taxable’ payments back to him. This is known as‘ disguised remuneration’ and HMRC deemed the trust a sham.
This is not the first time Dettori has experienced personal embarrassment spilling into the public sphere.
He was banned from racing after cocaine was detected in his system at Longchamp racecourse, in Paris, on September 16, 2012.
He disclosed that he took his children out of school for six months while he served his punishment and they all took holidays around the world.
But his expected immediate return to the limelight in 2013 never happened and it would be months before he was welcomed back into the racing fold properly.
Speaking in May 2013 he said: ‘I’m very ashamed and embarrassed, and paid a very big price for it.
‘I spent six months not doing the thing that I love, racing. The embarrassment of telling the children. You know they still go to school, they might get bullied and so it was a very, very difficult time.’
Earlier in his career, in 1993, Dettori was given a police caution after being caught with a small amount of cocaine in his pocket in London.
In his autobiography he admitted that he become a ‘tearaway, a night-club wolf, a drugs dabbler who was perilously close to seeing his career go permanently off the rails’.
Reflecting on his cocaine ban from racing, he previously told Piers Morgan Uncensored: ‘Nobody would touch me. Worst thing was even my wife started doubting me you know.
Dettori became a cross-over celebrity given his success and charismatic personality
Queen Elizabeth II presents Dettori with a winners prize at Ascot Racecourse in October 2017
‘She said to me the famous words “show me how good you are”.
‘We were struggling to pay bills and things were going bad and it all ended up in an argument.
‘She turned round and said you know all your life you’re telling me how good you are, look at us now, we can’t even pay bills, so show me how good you are
‘That was like someone shot me in the heart.’
That ban came 12 years after he was awarded the MBE and elevated his celebrity further as a team captain on the BBC’s A Question of Sport.
His stint on the hit show came to an end when he was reportedly hurt by a question from an panel member asking when he retired from riding.
In a BBC Newsnight programme he also admitted taking diuretics, chocolate laxatives and even Lasix, to keep his weight down, before the Jockey Club outlawed them in 1998.
Before his ban, Dettori’s mental and physical health was suffering immensely.
Dettori and Catherine at the Frankie Dettori Celebration Dinner at JW Marriott Grosvenor House in 2023
His wife, Catherine, who he married in 1997, said in 2001: ‘We saw the darkness. Anxiety, depression and his weight was really bad. He would eat too much, then make himself sick. It was bulimia, a really frightening time.’
Frankie admitted to making himself vomit ‘two to three times a day’.
He said: ‘It was self-harming. I went through it badly. You feel ashamed, scared, you have heart palpitations, anxiety.
‘My job was going t**s up, I was angry and frustrated, I fell into the trap of depression and took some cocaine.’
But Dettori fought his way back and reestablished himself as one of the world’s best jockeys, while also proving himself to his wife.
That he was able to survive and thrive at all is a minor miracle.
Back in 2000, he almost died in a horrific plane crash at Newmarket that killed pilot Patrick Mackey.
Dettori and fellow jockey Ray Cochrane escaped from the wreckage of the rented Piper Seneca plane.
Cochrane later told the astonishing story, revealing to the Sun: ‘We set off down the airfield, the wind caught it and it bounced.
Dettori is seen sporting the eye injury he sustained in the plane crash that almost took his life
‘The propeller caught the ground and away it went again. I looked at Frankie and yanked up the seatbelt.
‘There was smoke coming out of the engine. We were heading for Devil’s Dyke and the wing tip caught it and flipped over and I thought, “This is going to hurt”. I woke up after 30 seconds or so and kicked the luggage door open.
‘Frankie was covered in blood, couldn’t see, was screaming his leg was broken and couldn’t walk.
‘I put him up on the ground and was climbing back in for Patrick (who had collapsed at the controls) but the engine was on fire and the wind was making it a flame-thrower coming at you. Absolutely no chance of getting in.’
In his memoir, Dettori described the scene: ‘We’re going to die. We’re going to die. We’re going to die.
‘It seemed so stupid. I was in perfect health, I was one of the best in the world at what I did, I’d just won the Gold Cup, and most of all I had a wife and baby boy I loved. All about to be wiped out so close to home I could practically see my front door.
‘I didn’t even have the strength to scream or cry. What I felt most, even beyond fear, was disappointment. My life wasn’t flashing in front of my eyes like it is said to at times like these. I just thought Why? Why take me now?
‘As we cartwheeled into the ground, the impact was thunder and lightning all in one, a ghastly nightmare sound of metal scraping and voices screaming. The world went black, a brief moment of unconsciousness, and then I came round.
‘My leg was in agony, and I felt something warm and sticky on my face. Blood.
‘Ray and I were still strapped in our seats and Patrick was slumped motionless, his head against the instrument panel, while flames billowed from the engines.
‘Ray’s voice was loud in the sudden silence. ‘Get out! Frankie, get out! The plane’s full of fuel.
The remains of the plane that crashed with Dettori, his friend and the pilot in is seen after the explosion that took the life of Patrick Mackey
‘The tiny door used to stow baggage just behind my seat was ajar. Ray kicked it open, dragged me backwards and pushed me out of the narrow opening.’
The traumatic experience lives with Dettori to this day and he experiences claustrophobia as a result. On the 20th anniversary of the accident, he told Mail Sport: ‘I had sent Ray the picture of me and him in hospital. He rang and said “What a mess we were”.
‘We never really spoke about it and we don’t have to. It was beyond scary. It was such a bad experience and it will never leave you.’
Dettori went on to achieve legendary status in racing and establish himself as the world’s most famous jockey.
His career came to an end in Brazil earlier this month, where he rode Bet You Can to victory to win the Grande Premio Estado do Rio De Janeiro.
‘I can rest now, whatever else happens today,’ Dettori said after his win. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish.
‘From the minute I got on the horse, it has been phenomenal. It’s a great place to finish, trust me. I’m very happy.’