I’m A Celebrity: All you need to know about Frankie Dettori

Top jockey Frankie Dettori is to be among the contestants for this year’s series of I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here!

Want to know more about horse racing’s biggest star? Here’s 25 things that will help you get to know him better.

1 The 52-year-old was born on December 15, 1970 in Milan, Italy. He is 5ft 4in and can ride at 8st 6lb if required.

2 He is married to Catherine and the couple, who live in Newmarket, have five children: Leo, Ella, Mia, Tallulah and Rocco.

3 His father, Gianfranco, was a champion jockey, while his mum was a circus performer.

4 He got into horse racing as a youngster when his father bought him a Palomino pony. At 13, he left school to focus to work as a stable boy and apprentice jockey.

5 The trainer who initially helped put Dettori on the map was his fellow Italian, Luca Cumani, who took him under his wing when he was just 14. “He was like a child to me at the beginning and so I’m very proud of all of his successes and the great things he has done in his life within racing,” Cumani said.

6 As a general rule of thumb, Flat jockeys receive 8.5 per cent of the advertised win prize money and 2.61 per cent of the place prize money. So, Frankie's latest big win on Inspiral, at the Breeder's Cup in America, would have netted him about £70,000 as the first prize was £888,000. Flat jockeys in Britain also get £158 per ride.

7 Frankie's first win was June 9, 1987, aged 16, aboard the Cumani-trained Lizzy Hare at Goodwood. He became the first teenager to ride 100 winners in a season since the legendary Lester Piggott.

8 He had had about 3,300 winners in Britain. He is famous for celebrating his big wins – and some of his smaller ones – with a flying dismount.

9 His most celebrated day came at Ascot in September in 1996 when he rode all seven winners on the card at accumulative odds of 25,000-1. One punter won £500,000 by combining all his rides but some bookmakers, like Gary Wiltshire, were left licking counting the cost. Overall, bookies estimate that Frankie cost them £30 million.

10 Frankie’s Magnificent Seven was completed by a horse called Fujiyama Crest. And when Fujiyama Crest was retired, it was Dettori and his family who took care of him. “He changed my life. There would have been no magnificent seven without him,” he says.

11 He has been champion jockey on three occasions. In 1994, when at his busiest, he had 233 winners from 1317 rides.

12 He announced late last year that this season, his 37th in Britain, would be his last. His Farewell Tour was celebrated far and wide, plus he was inducted into the QIPCO British Champions Series Hall Of Fame. Then, last month, he announced he would be carrying on in America. It is short odds that he will ride again in Britain at some stage in 2024.

13 In June 2000, Dettori and fellow jockey Ray Cochrane were aboard a Piper Seneca plane which crashed on take off at Newmarket on its way to Goodwood in Sussex. Cochrane pulled Dettori from the wreckage but was unable to save pilot Patrick Mackey. Dettori suffered a broken ankle and facial cuts and spent several days in hospital.

14 In 2004 Dettori teamed up with chef Marco Pierre White to open a chain of several Italian restaurants called Frankie's Bar and Grill. He has also published a cookbook and produced a line of frozen Italian foods.

15 Between September 2002 and September 2004 he was one of the team captains on the BBC programme A Question of Sport. He also hosted Top Of The Pops on one occasion.

16 Frankie has been the leading jockey at Royal Ascot eight times. Only Lester Piggott has ridden more winners than him there.

17 He was banned from racing for six months in 2012 after failing a drugs test. During his, he became a housemate on the eleventh series of Celebrity Big Brother and was the fifth person to be evicted from the house.

18 In addition to having twice won the Derby at Epsom, he has won at least one version of the race in France, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Macau and Slovakia. Other countries he has won in are Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Hong Kong, Qatar, Mauritius, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, Hungary, Sweden and Turkey.

19 Whether it be sun-kissed Trinidad & Tobago, or the snowy terrain of the White Turf in Switzerland, Dettori has been there, done that and got the T-shirt. He has won prestige prizes in 25 different countries.

20 The Italian has always thrived on the big occasion, never more so than in France’s most prestigious race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, which is contested every October by the best middle-distances horses from all over Europe. Dettori has won the Arc a record six times, with the help of Lammtarra (1995), Sakhee (2001), Marienbard (2002), Golden Horn (2015), Enable (2017 and 2018).

21 The Dubai World Cup was once the richest race in the world and remains among the most valuable. Dettori won it three times in swift succession for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation via Dubai Millennium (2000), Moon Ballad (2003) and Electrocutionist (2006). He then won it a record-equalling fourth time aboard the Bob Baffert-trained Country Grammar at Meydan two years ago when there was prize money of $12 million up for grabs.

22 In Britain alone, more than 620 trainers have used the services of Frankie. Some have shared fleeting moments of glory with him, but others have enjoyed decades of success in his company, none more so than John Gosden.

23 The pair first combined for Group success with Susurration at Saint-Cloud in November 1991 and, 32 years later, remain a potent combination. They have become one of racing’s great double acts.

24 Dettori has had more than 2400 rides in Britain for Gosden, who now trains in tandem with his son, Thady, and has had more than 600 winners for him on these. In recent times they have teamed up to stunning effect at home and abroad with tremendous equine athletes like Enable, Golden Horn, Cracksman, Palace Pier, Stradivarius and Inspiral.

25 Frankie spent 18 years as No 1 rider for Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation. Dubai Millennium, Swain, Daylami, Fantastic Light, Sakhee, Lammtarra, Mark Of Esteem, Island Sands, Classic Cliche, Cape Verdi and Kazzia were among the glittering stars who came out to play in Dettori’s hands.