Frankie Dettori's British Classic Winners

By Rupert Collens

Frankie Dettori is certainly one of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries’ truly great international jockeys. Italian by birth – he rode his first winner there – we have been lucky in England that he came to live in Newmarket aged fifteen and has ridden mainly here.

A great and popular figure, quietly and privately he has done much for disabled people. In fact, he is a good example by any standards of a superb sportsman on and off the racecourse.

Perhaps most famous for riding all seven winners at Ascot on 28 September 1996, his record in the English classics over 30 years gives a true indication of his ability and dedication.

There is no doubt that England’s five classic races, the 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas which both run in late April/early May at Newmarket over a mile, the Oaks and Derby which run in early June at Epsom over a mile and a half, and the St Leger which runs nearly two miles in mid-September at Doncaster, are very, very important races on the international racing scene.

Frankie Dettori's record in them is super – 23 wins. Since 1945, he and Lester Piggott are the only jockeys to ride at least two winners of each of the classics. To put Frankie’s record into perspective, Sir Gordon Richards, 26-time champion flat jockey between 1925 and 1953, rode only fourteen classic winners.

This highly readable but erudite book devotes a double page spread to every winning ride, and there is a color section of photographs of him aboard his winning mounts by the famous racing journalist John Crofts.

Dettori's first classic winner was in the 1994 Oaks at Epsom on Balanchine and his last in 2023, once again in the Oaks, on Soul Sister. This book is a superb record of greatness in the saddle over 30 years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pen and Sword
• Release date: Mar 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9781036104207

Rupert Collens

RUPERT COLLENS is a pen name for a very well-known racing character, Sir Rupert Mackeson Bart. Now well past his 80th birthday, many regard him as a racing national treasure like his deceased friends Sir Peter O’Sullevan and Lester Piggott. Aged fifteen, he was riding fast work for local point to point trainers in his native Kent in the mid-1950s. Not allowed to ride in public until aged eighteen by his parents, he rode point to point winners in the UK and Ireland, and flat race winners in Belgium and Germany. For the past forty years he has been a familiar sight on racecourses selling racing books, many written or ghosted by himself, and prints. In fact, he has traded on forty-four of the current racecourses in the UK, and numerous in Ireland and France.

Book preview

BALANCHINE

Balanchine was the most lovely individual – biggish, but great quality matched with strength, lovely temperament, outstanding ability on the racecourse and a good pedigree. She was bred by Robert Sangster, under the banner of Swettenham Stud in the USA, with his exceptional two-year-old Storm Bird as the sire and his Affirmed mare Morning Devotions as the dam. As a two-year-old Balanchine was trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam at Sangster’s estate at Manton, near Marlborough in Wiltshire. She was clearly very able, as she started 2/1 favourite for a fifteen-runner maiden at Salisbury in early September, won easily and followed that win with another easy one at Newbury two weeks later.

She was sold to Maktoum Al Maktoum and went out to the Gulf to be readied for her three-year-old season in a warmer climate by trainer Hilal Ibrahim. It was an experiment that worked brilliantly. Coming back to England a few days before the 1,000 Guineas, run on 28 April 1994, she ran a blinder ridden for the first time by Frankie Dettori, being beaten by the shortest of short heads into second place.

Her next outing was in the Oaks, once again with Frankie in the saddle. It was his third ride in the race. He had been second in 1991 on Shamshir, admittedly beaten ten lengths by Jet Ski Lady, and third on Oakmead in 1993. The two most fancied horses were Bulaxie at 2/1, a good winner last time out of the Lupe Stakes at Goodwood, and the French raider Bonash at 3/1. Neither filly finished in the first four. Balanchine was third favourite at 6/1, perhaps good value for money seeing her 1,000 Guineas form.

It was a miserable rainy day at Epsom and Fragrant Belle, the 33/1 outsider, led them a fair clip to Tattenham Corner, where Balanchine joined her. With the going by now on the soft side of good in the straight the field came across to the stands rail and Hawajiss was bustled up by Walter Swinburn to take the lead. With Balanchine a close up second at the furlong pole Frankie committed for home and quickly the race was over. They were two and a half lengths ahead of Wind In Her Hair at the post.

Frankie had ridden a copybook race to give him his first classic win and Ibrahim was the first trainer outside Europe to win a UK classic. Balanchine proved herself on the verge of greatness in her next race when easily winning a nine-runner Irish Derby, again ridden by Frankie, by four and a half lengths. Soon afterwards she suffered a bad attack of colic and although saved by the vets never showed form quite as good again on the racecourse.

THE ENERGIZER OAKS

Epsom, 4 June 1994 at 4.10pm

Value to the winner: £147,500

10 ran Going: Good to soft

1st: BALANCHINE 6/1

Jockey: Frankie Dettori

Trainer: Hilal Ibrahim, UAE

Owner: Saeed Maktoum Al Maktoum & Godolphin

Breeder: Swettenham Stud

2nd: Wind In Her Hair 7/1

Jockey: Richard Hills

Trainer: John Hills Owner: Mrs W Tulloch

3rd: Hawajiss 9/1

Jockey: Walter Swinburn

Trainer: Michael Stoute

Owner: Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum

Also ran: Spot Prize (4th), Bonash (5th), Majestic Role (6th), Bulaxie (7th, 2/1 fav), Dance To The Top (8th), Brentwood (9th), Fragrant Belle (10th).

Distances: 2½ lengths, 1¼ lengths.

Time: 2m 40.37s.

MOONSHELL

1994 was a great year for Frankie, who ended up champion jockey with 233 wins, the highest number since 1949 when Gordon Richards rode 269. In 1953, Coronation Year, Richards was knighted and became Sir Gordon, as well as being champion jockey. Frankie won his first classic, the Oaks, on Balanchine.

1995 started the same way, with plenty of winners and getting placed in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket. This was on the Saeed bin Suroor-trained Moonshell, bred by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who ran her under the soon to be famous name of Godolphin.

By now Sheikh Mohammed and his brothers Maktoum Al Maktoum and Hamdan Al Maktoum had won the Oaks eight times, starting in 1985 with Oh So Sharp and finishing off last year with Balanchine. The roll of honour of their trainers was more than impressive, including as it did Henry Cecil, Michael Stoute, John Dunlop, Jim Bolger,