It has taken 20 years but Frankie Dettori appears to have been forgiven by at least a section of the bookmaking community for his Magnificent Seven at Ascot, when he won every race and redistributed £40m of their wealth among thousands of betting shop punters. Ladbrokes, for whom the veteran jockey now works as an ambassador, hosted a bibulous lunch on Monday in a smart Mayfair restaurant to mark the anniversary this week, bringing along a handful of key witnesses to reminisce between courses.
“Bookmakers, in the long run, they always win,” Dettori says, taking his seat at the table. “They were angry with me on the day but I think they’ve made their money back.”
It is a rather downbeat way to reflect on one of the very few days in racing history when it seemed anyone really could make a fortune at the game. That was certainly the message taken away by the Ladbrokes PR director, Mike Dillon, who recalls the “weeping and teeth-gnashing” on the following Monday morning as his firm worked out its share of the payout at around £10m. “I remember at the time thinking it would be really good for racing [and betting on racing]. I told them: ‘Don’t put that in the trading budget, put it in the marketing budget.’
“It was the chance of a lifetime and the right guy to win those seven races. Had it been Lester ‘Stoneface’ Piggott who did it, he’d have gone straight into the weighing room, no interviews, maybe smoke a cigar and that would be it. Frankie was brilliant, presented the cheque to every big winner, went on breakfast TV and every news channel known to man.”
From this distance, 1996 seems another world. Footage from the day shows the 25-year-old Dettori looking so boyish he surely left school only that week. John Hanmer reveals he and his fellow BBC commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan sank most of two bottles of champagne before going on air, a very old-school way of approaching a big day. The software that now allows bookmakers to keep a constant eye on their liabilities had yet to be written, so Dillon describes shop managers from all around the country calling in after race five or race six to say: “I’ve got this bet here, it could cost us £100,000 …”
Ladbrokes’ biggest winner on the day, John Bolton, is here, grinning as if he had just banked the £500,000. A Somerset cattle farmer, he was in London to celebrate his wedding anniversary and grouped Dettori’s rides in various bets that morning because his wife, Mary, liked the Italian. She then went shopping, he went to the track. In those days before mobile phones were in every hand, he had to wait until he got back to Ascot station to call her at their hotel with the news and a question of burning importance. “You’ve still got that betting slip, haven’t you ... ?”
Strictly, the Boltons were due £930,000 but Ladbrokes, in common with other big firms, had a half-million ceiling on shop payouts. The limit, now £1m, exists “to protect us against freak events, acts of God,” said a spokesman for the firm. “And in a way, that’s what this was.”
Dettori is not widely seen as a modest man but he is certainly inclined to play down his part in achieving those seven successes, describing how he was overtaken by a sense of disbelief as the afternoon progressed. “The emotions were so high, I felt like a numbness. From race three, I was no more in control of my destiny. The adrenaline, the buzz ... they say you go into a zone, I was definitely in the zone. From races three to five, it was natural instinct and adrenaline took over. You do what you have to do because you’re taught to do it from day one but I was not in control any more. When it came to the sixth, panic sets in.”
The panic was because Dettori recognised he could become just the fourth jockey in 320 years of English racing to ride six winners on one card, joining Sir Gordon Richards, Willie Carson and Alec Russell.
“I could be one of those guys in this elite group. The great AP McCoy had been trying it every Monday at Newton Abbot and couldn’t do it. I was so close, I got sweaty hands, a dry mouth, really nervous.”
As it turned out, Dettori had little to worry about because if he rode one certainty at Ascot that day, Lochangel was it, a top-class sprinter who would win the Nunthorpe two years later. This was her debut success and she hacked up. “I’ve never been so happy,” he says now. “I’d done something historic. That was me done. After that, I shut up shop. I thought, it can’t get any better than this. I never even thought about seven.”
His final mount, Fujiyama Crest, had been friendless at 12-1 in the morning but thanks to the exploits of his jockey, had been hammered down to 2-1 by the ‘off’. Dettori was carefree, playing to the crowds as he walked out to the paddock for the last time that day and as he cantered to the start. He did not expect to win, adding: “And you know what, I didn’t want that race to spoil my day. The reason he won, I didn’t give a shit. I never put a thought into the riding. Just my adrenaline and natural instinct took over. If I’d thought about it, I might have done something different. It just happened.
“I keep on meeting people from all walks of life, young people, pensioners, cleaners, taxi drivers, plumbers, that won thousands and thousands. In a small way, I’ve changed their lives and I’m so proud of it. I’ve won every major race in the world, more or less, but I’ll always be remembered for the magnificent seven.”
Dettori has enjoyed himself. It has certainly been a better Monday than chasing over to Bath to ride handicappers. “Let’s do this every year. Now ... how do we split the bill?”
