Ask Frankie

Last week we caught up with everyones favourite jockey Frankie Dettori, we asked all our social media followers to ask him some questions. We wanted to make this a bit fun as byt now we all know his favourite filly (Enable!) and what race he still wants to win (The Melbourne Cup) but do you know if he’s watched Tiger King?

How have you been keeping yourself entertained during lockdown? I have been riding out for John Gosden, I have been using my gym at home. Plus the weather has been quite good so don’t laugh, I have been doing about an hour a day of gardening! Just moving some turf around a bit, I have only been doing an hour a day and already have a bad back! The new house is a mess outside so I am trying to flatten some turf at the front. So I get the boys involved, Rocco is on the digger and Leo is on the tractor, so it keeps us amused! Have you watched Tiger King? Yes its funny, I think we watched the whole series in one day me and Catherien. And then I know there is a kinda dance the kids told me about, so I tried to learn it after a few beers the other day! “Carol Baskin Killed her husband and bashed him” so i haven’t mastered it yet but when I have I will post it for you! Would you trade your magnificent seven at Ascot for Enable to win a 3rd Arc? No, sorry. Listen you know she is special but seven in a day is something else, 350 years of horse racing in England it’s never happened so I am proud of that! What would you do if you weren’t a jockey? I wanted to be a footballer but I was too small and wasn’t good enough! I like golf, be a sportsman of some sort, I’m not very good at golf either! But if I had the talent I would have liked to of been a golfer! Or something to do with horses! When do you think racing will be going again? I would say, my gut feeling maybe end of May behind closed doors, maybe June more realistically just to get things started. Does your son Rocco still want to be a jockey? No, he has been training hard and has beefed up. He is a fitness fanatic and definitely too big to be a jockey. Funnily enough he has mentioned the army I dunno why, it’s a bit different from being a jockey! Would you rather win the Melbourne Cup or the Epsom Derby this year? I would like to win another Derby again, for us it is the blue ribbon, it’s the one we all want to win. No disrespect to the Melbourne Cup but I think the Derby carries more importance for a jockey anyway. Have you ever ridden one of your Emus? No, the emus are too small to be ridden, their not like ostriches. Plus I try and stay well away from them they’re not very friendly. What are you watching at the moment? Well believe it or not I am probably one of the few people in this country who has never seen Shamless so I am on season three. So it’s been keeping me entertained every evening and at the moment I have my teeth into that. What’s your ambition when you hang up your boots? Umm god I really don’t know, to be honest with you. Try to enjoy this last bit and I will cross that bridge when it comes to it.  If you had a ride in the Grand National do you think you would get round? If I would of rode WEST TIP what Richard rode in the 1986 I think I would of got round, it was one of my favourite Grand Nationals that was. Who has been your favourite Arsenal Player? Ian Wright, obviously. He was at the time the best. What’s your favourite pasta dish? Um my favourite pasta dish would be pasta amatriciana, its a roman dish, bread sauce with some bacon its very tasty but quite rich. But I like it. If you could be in lockdown with three jockeys who would you pick? I would say , obviously I am friends with Rab (Robert Havlin), Franny Norton he’s a good laugh and you can always have a good laugh with Pat Cosgrave. Do you still speak to Ryland from Big Brother? I spoke to him a few months ago I can’t remember why, and then I saw him about a year ago. I was working in Mayfair and he was outside having a cigarette and then we went in for a drink and one drink led to another, and you know we had a couple of bottles and I didn’t realise he had to do the Brits that night, and he was a bit worse for wear! I did a number on him! Have you watched Peaky Blinders? Yes I have, I am thinking of cutting my hair like one of them and shaving off the sides! I will wait til it gets a little bit longer. I think its called a midlife crisis or boredom. Final question, do you like to dunk a biscuit in your tea? No I don’t, I don’t have tea and biscuits. I do like a coffee and a little bit of chocolate, at the moment I like my dark chocolate, I like a bueno bars, kinder egg sticks. But the problem in my house is that the chocolate in my house doesn’t even touch the ground and its gone! See the full video HERE