Frankie Dettori is to leave Godolphin after being retained rider to Sheikh Mohammed's operation for 18 years....More
Not a surprise given the events of the last few months. The key question is how long will Frankie stick it out as a freelance before packing it in all together.
I think this makes them weaker, I really do. Does that last line mean they won't be looking at hiring anyone else?
When Fallon spoke to the conference I was at just over a week ago, he said he felt he didn't have much longer left as a jockey. He's only a few years older than Frankie
In other jockey news, Twitter seems to indicate that Jamie Spencer has landed the job as principal rider for Qatar racing. I've retweeted the tweet concerned on the 606 Racing account.
Another thought, how long till Saeed calls it a day? I've been hearing for months that Sheikh Mo is spending more time at Al Zarooni's yard when he is in town.
It would be reasonable to assume that Frankie is not going to have an agent booking him rides at Catterick, Hamilton and Wolverhampton, so whilst he will pick up plenty of rides at the big meetings, the housewives’ favourite probably only has a couple of years left in his career as a freelance. Just like every other industry, racing is unofficially ageist. Godolphin have hired a couple of new young guys so the old guy is superfluous to requirements. I might be a couple of years older than Frankie but he will not be down at Tesco stacking the shelves because he has a bigger bank account than me. Whether names change on the training doors is difficult to determine as I suspect that there are no employment laws in Dubai so if they decide to dispense with Saeed bin Suroor he will just go quietly.
Is it certain he will go freelance? There are stables who may retain him and many who would be happy to have him riding their horses when available. He is only 41, that's juvenile in jockey terms. He says he wants to ride to 50, have we any reason to doubt that? This could unleash a switch of earlier day proportions when Piggott parted with O'Brien, went to Cecil and Eddery went to O'Brien. Then Piggott went on to win the jockey's championship for the next two seasons (I believe) at the age of 48 and 49. So how about this as a switch, Moore to Coolmore and Dettori to Stoute: unlikely but not impossible. Dettori isn't everyone's tasse de the as a person but he's still a very fine jockey. In fact I think he's in the top three, and believe working for Godolphin has done him little good in the last 10 years. This split could be the remaking of him.
Say what you want about Dettori, the guy is still the top flat jockey around. Uncomplicated, tactically aware, and always getting his horse in the right position. He hasn't had a great deal of armour in terms of Godolphin 3 year olds these last couple of years. He will bounce back if given the quality rides. Question is though, which of the top yards actually need him?
I see that Ray Cochrane (the Dettori creatures agent) seems to be of the opinion that the Dettori creature will be Champion Jockey in 2013! Yeah, and I’ll find Lord Lucan, Shergar and the Loch Ness Monster dining at the old ‘top table’ in an hour and a half or so. If he goes freelance he’s going to find himself behind the likes of Ryan Moore, ‘King’ Kieran, the Buick boy, Johnny Murtagh and Richard Hughes when if comes to picking up rides and will only get on anything remotely decent when all of these are retained to ride something else. Unless someone is dappy enough to come in and offer him a retainer he will, in my opinion, retire within 12-24 months due to lack of rides. Has dined off those seven winners at Ascot for at least a decade and now he has to prove he is still as capable. Personally, I don’t think he is. A happy postscript though is that the Dettori creature and Godolphin parted on good terms and as they said farewell the former held out his hand to his former boss and said, ‘Shake Mohammed’.
Dettori as Champion Jockey - there's more chance of me winning the tour de france straight after collecting the men's single title at Wimbledon. Like you I don't see much of a future for him here as he just won't get the rides - unless of course Cochrane knows soemthing that we don't. I've always done ok with Frankie in terms of backing his horses but I'm not a fan. Certain jockeys make sure that it's all about the horse at the end of the race. Too often i feel that frankie believes it's all about him. Christophe Sounillon shows similar traits in my opinion......
Surprised at some of these comments. Dettori was on the floor in '92. He picked himself up and within 2 years was champion jockey. As I said people may not like him but he's a hell of a jockey, and I'd only mention Buick and Moore in the same breath. So I'm with TopClass on this one.
are there no rumours about? Young Joseph must be in a precarious position I would think. There must be a number 1 for Coolmore. Is the Aga Khan looking for a jockey? As regards NamNed's suggestion Gosden would be happy with Dettori, though Buick is the boy for the future obviously. Maybe his future is elsewhere though.
