Dettori: Magnificent Seven still my biggest achievement

Few have transcended their sport quite like Frankie Dettori and 30 years on from his ‘Magnificent Seven’ and that unforgettable afternoon at Ascot, he still cherishes “my biggest achievement”.

Winning every race on the card at cumulative odds of 25,095-1 not only cost the betting industry a reported £40million but took racing to the front pages and the Italian from weighing-room starlet to household name.

For all the big races that would come in one of the most decorated riding careers of all time, Dettori still regards September 28, 1996 as his greatest day in the saddle.

Dettori said: “It’s 30 years on and it’s still my biggest achievement in the sport. I’ve won Arcs, Derbys, Classics, but the sport has been going over 350 years and it had never been done before until that day, so I’m happy with that.

“It was an amazing moment. I don’t know how it happened, I think four of the seven were less than half a length, I was lucky in a lot of it and I still can’t explain how it happened.

“I can remember every race stride-by-stride up to race five and after that it all gets hazy. I know I won the race as I’ve seen the pictures – I guess I was in a trance.

“The day revolved around Mark Of Esteem against Bosra Sham (in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes), so when I got the third race in the bag and knew Saeed bin Suroor’s (trainers’ championship) title was won I was just floating on air really. I was on cloud nine.”

Dettori’s performance remains unmatched, topping the previous best on six-race cards by Sir Gordon Richards at Chepstow in 1933 and Alec Russell at Bogside in 1957.

“When I put Jeff Smith’s colours on for Lochangel I started to panic and I got sweaty hands and a dry mouth, as I knew I was one away from equalling the record of Sir Gordon Richards and Alec Russell,” added Dettori.

“It looked like it would be a two-horse race between me and Pat (Eddery, on Corsini) and I was really nervous. Of course she won and the celebrations were amazing and now I had made history, I was in that elite group that had won six out of six.”

Entrusted with putting Dettori out on his own was Sir Michael Stoute’s Fujiyama Crest, a horse who on paper had plenty on his plate but due to the betting frenzy created by his rider’s staggering run was bearing the weight of favouritism.

Dettori explained: “I was doing TV interviews left, right and centre and I was getting pulled everywhere, but I quickly managed to weigh out and get changed and was running everywhere and while doing that everyone was patting me on the back saying, ‘come on you can get seven’, and I was thinking ‘are you out of your mind!’.

“The horse I was riding hadn’t won for a year, had top-weight, was out of form and was meant to be 12-1 and then I looked at the board and he was 2-1 favourite.

“I went out there with a ‘don’t give a s***’ attitude and I thought, ‘f*** it, I’ve already won six’, I’ve already made the record books so I’m going out there to enjoy it.

“I got a standing ovation on the way to the start and I was milking it, loving the moment and there was no pressure as I really thought he couldn’t win.

“We do this day in and day out and you almost never hear the crowd, but that day the noise that came from the grandstand almost knocked me over, it was incredible.

“We hit the furlong marker and poor ‘Fuji’ was getting tired and all I could hear was the crack of Pat’s whip (on Northern Fleet) and I thought ‘he’s coming to get me’. It was a struggle, but we got there and we were both super exhausted and I was both emotionally and physically tired.”

It was a victory that capped a monumental afternoon for Dettori, but he revealed celebrations were rather curtailed due to a disagreement with future wife Catherine.

“I remember walking back in after the last and trying to savour the moment and there were people everywhere,” continued Dettori, who later gave Fujiyama Crest a happy retirement after buying him.

“There were people climbing rails, trees, anything they could, and they had two massive lions in front of the old weighing room and people were on top of them, it was mad.

“I didn’t realise the magnitude of what I had achieved and funnily enough my fiancé at the time, now my wife Catherine, forced me to go to one of her friend’s 21st birthday party.

“I didn’t want to go and just wanted to put my feet up, have a glass of champagne in my pyjamas and we ended up having an argument and I went to bed and we were fighting over the duvet and I ended the day upset!”

With domestic harmony resolved, the next morning would signal the start of life as a public figure for Dettori, who now aged 55 and retired from the saddle, remains one of racing’s most recognisable figures.

He said: “The next morning I was buzzing and I opened my door to get my newspapers and only had my underpants and T-shirt on and I was met by TV cameras, paparazzi and journalists, so I shut the door quickly and I panicked and rang my agent, but it was at that moment my life changed forever.

“I’ve had some good and bad life-changing moments, but that was one of those good ones. I was doing well and a good jockey and well known in racing, but now I was on the front pages of the newspapers and up to this day I still have punters coming up to me thanking me for paying for their wedding or clearing their mortgage. It’s people from all walks of life.

“I embraced it with both hands, both for myself and the sport, and in the 1990s everything was quite negative about racing, but for once there was something good to talk about.

“I was doing breakfast TV, A Question of Sport, Top of the Pops and all the chat shows. I turned on Christmas lights and I did everything possible I could do, I loved it and it was unbelievable how much one afternoon changed my life.”