From Messi to Jordan: Dettori Among Sporting Greats as Colleagues Pay Tribute at Del Mar

[Wandering Eyes]

DEL MAR, USA — More elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel, Frankie Dettori, who dropped a new retirement bombshell the previous afternoon, was nowhere to be seen as the sun came up over the Del Mar backstretch on Thursday morning. But that didn't stop the press pack from seeking him here, seeking him there. 

Would he be aboard Wimbledon Hawkeye as he emerged to take a turn on the turf around 7.15am? Nope. Nor was he to be found aboard the Japanese mare Argine, whose participation in the Breeders' Cup Mile will make a little piece of racing history, as the last mount of the fabled jockey at these championships. 

Argine's trainer Mitsu Nakauchida has arrived in California and said that he had specifically booked Dettori for the daughter of Lord Kanaloa because of his experience of riding at Del Mar over the last few years.

“He rode her yesterday and he came back very happy,” Nakauchida said. “She's a light filly and she goes very well on the fast turf. I hope she will be an appropriate horse for Frankie Dettori's last Breeders' Cup ride.”

Paying tribute to Dettori, Nakauchida, who had a brief race-riding career of his own before he began training, added, “I've been watching him since I was a kid and he was a superstar already. He's been such a big figure in the racing industry – he's the Michael Jordan of the racing world, or like Yukata Take in Japan. It is actually an honour to have Frankie Dettori on my horse.”

Kia Joorabchian apparently felt the same way about Dettori's previous 'final' ride on his King Of Steel in the Champion Stakes of two years ago. 

“What can you say about Frankie? He's an icon,” Joorabchian said amid a gaggle in the Del Mar stable row on Thursday morning. 

The Amo Racing boss has a decent team of horses competing this year, with Arizona Blaze, Bucanero Fuerte and Cathedral all set to run at Del Mar on Saturday, and to his team of people he is set to add Dettori as a “global brand ambassador”.

“He is a true legend of the sport. When you talk about great sportsmen like LeBron James, Curry, Messis and Peles, and people like that, Frankie is that to horse racing. When you go into Royal Ascot, you see a statue out there, you know that he's made a big impact on so many lives across the world.”

 

Wimbledon Hawkeye will be one of Dettori's final Breeders' Cup rides | Racingfotos

 

So just what will being a global ambassador involve?

“He will be the front face of our team,” Joorabchian explained. “He's going to get himself stuck in, this is not a part-time job. He knows that, and he's going to hopefully be doing things that I don't need to do anymore, like this – talking to you. That would be a pleasure.

“He's not here to entertain people, he's here to actually work and he will be working with us very closely. He will be involved in all aspects of our business. He won't be a racing manager. He is a global ambassador. He will be going out, he will be seeing the horses, he'll be talking to the press. He will be looking at the operation. He'll be making his suggestions on what we should be doing better.”

He added, “[Frankie] said he wanted to finish doing that little South American tour, so he's going to finish his South American tour, and then he's going to start with us.”

Superstars comes in different guises, and one of a slightly more reticent persona than Dettori will be missed at the Breeders' Cup this year. As Ryan Moore continues his recovery from injury, the man charged with swinging his leg over a dazzling array of equine talent in his place is Christophe Soumillon. He may not have tasted Breeders' Cup glory for two decades since his victory on Shirocco in the 2005 Turf at Belmont Park, but the 44-year-old has proved time and again this year that he is still very much at his mercurial best. Soumillon's biggest chance of a second Breeders' Cup win may well be aboard this year's Turf favourite Minnie Hauk, who will carry a lightweight of 8st 7lbs, but she is just one of six rides for him across the two days, including the highly-touted juveniles Gstaad and Precise. 

Soumillon joined the Ballydoyle string out on the track on Thursday for the first time this week to be legged up on Bedtime Story, who will be his final ride of Saturday in the Filly & Mare Turf. Later, he too delivered his own Dettori tribute. 

“Frankie is the best jockey I have ever seen in my life,” Soumillon said. “It was very sad when he first said he was heading for the United States to ride, which I was pleased to see worked out really well for him. I'm so proud to have competed with him and against him. This weekend will be the final time we ride together, it will be something to savour and I wish him well.”

He added of his own history at this meeting, “[Success at] the Breeders' Cup has eluded me, but then I've yet to win a British Classic which leaves two empty cages to fill.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance in which I have everything on my side. We all know how high the competition is and I don't want to make any mistakes in the races, but I've ridden plenty of times for Aidan before.”

Watching on as the morning's exercise unfolded was a large Coolmore contingent, being unofficial global ambassadors of their own brand by sporting a range of gilets advertising their new stallions: Delacroix, Henri Matisse and Camille Pissarro. On Tuesday, Aidan O'Brien had delivered a reminder of the two most recent Breeders' Cup meetings, decked out in his Auguste Rodin jacket and City Of Troy cap. By this meeting's eve, however, he had updated his look and those two stars had been replaced by this year's intake.

 

Serena, left, and Clare Aykroyd with Patrick Cooper | Emma Berry

 

So many of the big breeders are represented at this meeting, and appropriately so. It is after all the Breeders' Cup. But among those giving hope to those operating at a more modest level are Vimy Aykroyd and Kelly Thomas, breeders respectively of Amiloc and Gstaad. 

Thomas was on her way to California on Thursday but agonisingly – literally – for the 80-year-old Aykroyd, she is being forced to miss her trip to California having recently fallen and broken her arm. Standing in for her are her daughters Serena and Clare, who joined racing advisor Patrick Cooper to see Amiloc in action on Thursday. 

“She does this because it's her whole life. It's been a long time in the making,” said Clare of her mother while following Amiloc and Rossa Ryan out onto the track.

“It's incredibly exciting. I might start crying,” she added. “[Mum] is miserable because she's not here but she will be glued to the TV.

“I think she feels a bit like it's so huge and she is not used to competing at this level, or being in the limelight. But she is enjoying it and she deserves it. She was one of the first lady jockeys and to now get to this level at her age, you couldn't ask for more really.”

Aykroyd must surely be in line for small breeder of the year honours. From just four mares kept at Copgrove Hall Stud in her native Yorkshire, her three-year-olds this year include not just the G2 King Edward VII Stakes winner and Irish St Leger runner-up Amiloc but also G2 Dante Stakes and G2 Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Pride Of Arras. One way or another, a cup for this breeder would be richly deserved. 

 

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