Frankie Dettori

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 January 2006

⏱️ 36 minutes

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Summary

Sue Lawley's castaway this week is the jockey Frankie Dettori. Over the past two decades he's won more than 2,000 races including most of the classics at home and abroad and has been Champion Jockey three times. The son of a famous Italian jockey, he was brought up in Italy but sent by his father to train at Newmarket when he was 14 years old - 18 months later he was winning races. In 1996 he won seven races out of seven in a single day at Ascot - a feat that has not been achieved before or since.

But in 2000 he thought his luck had run out when he and fellow jockey Ray Cochrane left Newmarket in a light aircraft - only for it to plunge to the ground moments after take-off. He thought he was about to die and on coming round in the wreckage was not sure whether he was alive or dead. The event left him undecided as to what to do next. He was a hugely popular team captain on BBC TV's A Question of Sport for two years, but a chance remark from one of the contestants who thought he had retired made him realise he had to focus on being a jockey. He returned to the sport with a renewed vigour and became Champion jockey once again. Now a father of five, Frankie plans to retire at 45 and hopes that by then he will have won the Epsom Derby - the only major title that has so far eluded him.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Amazing Grace by Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Book: The History of the Derby Luxury: Lifetime's supply of Pinot Grigio

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello I'm Krestey Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.
0:05.0	For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.
0:08.0	The program was originally broadcast in 2006, and the presenter was Sue Lolly. My castaway this week is a jockey. He's won more than 2,000 races in his career, including most of the
0:34.7	classics at home and abroad, and has been champion jockey three times. It's an achievement
0:39.8	typical of a man whose professionalism and determination have seen him overcome a lot of difficulties
0:44.8	to arrive where he is today. The son of a famous Italian jockey, he was brought up in Italy and
0:50.4	then packed off to train in Newmarket at the age of 14.
0:53.0	Alone and unable to speak English, he soon mastered his art and 18 months later started to win races.
1:00.0	That's what he's been doing ever since.
1:02.0	And despite a certain reputation for luddishness,
1:04.6	he's now settled into the role of Britain's little legend on horseback,
1:08.7	rich, fit, and still bursting with energy.
1:12.1	If you're a rider, he says,
1:14.0	you've got to ride your madness out.
1:16.0	He is Frankie D'Tore.
1:18.0	Or maybe you never ride your madness out, Frankie,
1:21.0	maybe you just go on riding and go on being mad, do you?
1:24.0	Well, you got to be a little bit mad to do the job then we do.
1:27.0	I think any sensible person probably find it a bit scary, so I must say, yeah, you've got to have a little pinch of craziness in you
1:34.7	and are you a different person when you're out there you know when you're
1:37.1	riding to win is there is there a different Frankie de Tori I must say yeah I mean is
1:41.8	I had a couple of months off this year and I realize how different
	...

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