There are a lot of famous jockeys in the history of British horse racing, but Frankie Dettori would have to be the best Italian jockey. Born December 15, 1970, Frankie comes from a family with long history with horse racing. His father, Gianfranco, was one of the greatest Italian jockeys in horse racing history, winning a lot of races in the 1970s.
Frankie started his career in 1985, and quickly showed superb performances just a few months after he started. He rode 17 winners during the winter races, and continued to show superb performances since. He also rode Lizzy Hare to victory; the stallion was his first UK winner and won the race in 1987.
To continue his spectacular record, he rode a little over 100 winners in the 1990 season. He was quickly noted as one of the best young jockeys, comparable to other legendary names such as Lester Piggott. His performances in group races are simply amazing, winning 298 Group races, including 116 Group 1, 86 Group 2 and 96 Group 3, by the end of 2003.
The best horse Frankie ever ridden and his personal favorite is of course the Dubai Millennium. The horse won nine out of ten races during his racing career. Riding the Dubai Millennium, Frankie also won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes and the Dubai World Cup in 2000.
Frankie is now a regular jockey for Godolphin, and we can expect to see a lot of interesting performances to come this racing season.