Coral have introduced a number of Frankie Dettori retirement year specials after the superstar jockey announced he will hang up his saddle at the end of 2023.
The 52-year-old Italian has enjoyed a glittering career and is 11/8 to add to his 21 British Classic triumphs during his final campaign.
He can be backed at 40/1 to ride the winner of both the 1000 and 2000 Guineas, or 8/1 to secure a seventh Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe success.
Dettori famously went through the card with seven winners at Ascot in September 1996 and is 5/4 to bag a winner there on British Champions Day.
Punters can get 4/1 for him to be the top jockey at Royal Ascot and 5/4 he hits the target at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita in November, which is set to be his final meeting.
Coral’s David Stevens said: “No bookmaker, past or present, will ever forget September 28th, 1996, when Frankie Dettori secured his place in racing and betting history with his Magnificent 7 at Ascot, a feat that emptied the layers’ pockets to the tune of £40 million.
“If he was the bookmakers’ nemesis that day. and on many more days that followed – and we got a reminder of punters’ faith in Frankie as recently as the 2019 Royal meeting, when he rode the first four winners on the Thursday, leaving every major firm facing eyewatering liabilities – he was also one of the betting industry’s greatest friends as he provided the oxygen of publicity to the sport of racing like no other jockey before him, not even the great Lester Piggott in his pomp.
“Like all racing fans we’ll miss him when he calls it a day next year but before then we’ll be braced for one last season of the Frankie factor at play, particularly at the major meetings that he has made his own on so many occasions, and knowing Frankie, it’s short odds he gives his many followers one last bookie-bashing day to celebrate.”
Dettori’s place in the pantheon of the sport’s greatest jockeys has long since being assured, with his achievements far too many to mention.
He has been associated with numerous equine greats, including dual Arc heroine Enable, the mighty stayer Stradivarius and two Derby winners in Authorized and Golden Horn.
“The plan is I am riding Boxing Day in Santa Anita and I’m planning to spend 10 weeks in California,” he revealed.
“I should make my way back via Dubai and Saudi and I guess start my (British) season in Newmarket.
“I will be riding right through, obviously it will be my last Guineas, my last Derby, my last Royal Ascot so on and so forth and then will probably finish (in Britain) at either Champions Day at Ascot or at Newmarket.
“The final farewell as a professional rider will be in California at the Breeders’ Cup.”
Dettori insists the decision to call it a day is not one he has taken lightly.
“It is a very difficult decision because my heart wants to carry on riding, but I have had to use my brain and I’ve just turned 52 and next year I’ll be 53,” he continued.
“I want to be competitive enough to do my owners and my horses justice next year and I think I’m still in that bracket of being good. It was difficult, but it is the right time.
“I spoke to my dad at length. My dad stopped at 51, he is very supporting and I also had to speak to my wife and children, who are delighted because they have barely seen me for 35 years!
“I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks and I’ve decided with the firepower I have next year and the horses I have to ride I can finish my career on a big note. Fingers crossed I stay in one piece and we’ll give it a good go next year.
“Look at Ronaldo, one day he was playing and he’s on the bench the next. I don’t want to end up like that and end up where I’m struggling to get rides in the big races. At the moment, I still have good horses to ride and I want to finish like that.
“I feel like I’m near the top at the moment, but I’m well past my sell by date so it is about time. It will be very emotional next year, it will be very hard to let go.
“The weighing room is a capsule of timelessness where you never feel old – but the reality is I am old. So I have to give up.”
