Frankie Dettori does an emotion-charged flying leap after winning the Gr 1 Champion Stakes on King Of Steel in his last ever ride at his favourite stamping ground, Ascot. It was the 289th Gr 1 win of his glittering career (The Sun).
Michael Roberts said if he had been in Frankie Dettori’s shoes he would have reneged on his retirement from British racing.
Michael said, “It is nice to go out on a high, but it is difficult when you’re winning Group 1 races to say ‘Oh well I am just walking away from it.’ He is so much above the rest it is unbelievable, he is really riding well.”
Michael said he would have carried on riding under the same circumstances, particularly with all the big yard support Frankie had been getting.
He continued, “If the body allows you to carry on and you haven’t done your nerve there is no reason to retire.”
Michael is a good friend of Frankie’s.
He said, “I have known him from before he rode his first winner. I used to give him lifts to the races when he was an apprentice with Luca Cumani. He was always a very bubbly person. I would never take any credit for advising him, but he did ask me a lot of questions. He could hardly speak Engish at the time and I remember on the way to and from the races he always used to say, ‘What do you theenk, what do you theenk Michael, what do you theenk?!’”
