Frankie Dettori will not be riding for John Gosden for the foreseeable future as the pair are on a "sabbatical", according to the trainer; Dettori was not put on any of Gosden's horses running at Newmarket last weekend after criticism at Royal Ascot
Tuesday 28 June 2022 13:50, UK
Three-time Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Glen Boss has backed Frankie Dettori to continue to show his talents in the saddle.
Now retired, Boss won all there was to win in Australia and will be forever associated with Makybe Diva and her three successive victories in the 'race that stops a nation'. He also won the Cox Plate on the great mare, as he did with So You Think, Ocean Park and Sir Dragonet.
Dettori and John Gosden are on a well-publicised "sabbatical", after clear signs of strain at Royal Ascot, with Gosden senior publicly criticising Dettori following his ride on Stradivarius, who finished third in his bid for a fourth victory in the Gold Cup.
Dettori was not booked to ride any of the Gosden team's three runners at Newmarket on Saturday, despite being at the July Course to partner the Ralph Beckett-trained Lezoo in the Listed Maureen Brittain Memorial Empress Fillies' Stakes, owned by his friend Marc Chan.
Boss told Racing.com: "He's still very good at his job. I'd have him on any horse, in any race, any day of the week."
Boss also touched on what it is like for high-profile jockeys towards the end of their careers.
"More than ever, you have to be pressing and pressing and proving and I got sick of that," he said.
"That's one of the things that stopped me riding, I got so sick of having to try to prove myself to everyone all the time."
Sky Sports Racing's Calum Wilson...
Despite Gosden talking of 'moving on' during his public criticism of Dettori's ride on Stradivarius, the relationship has clearly been strained and there is good reason to think we might have seen the last of this famous partnership, which has combined for 63 Group and Grade One victories since the mid-1990's.
So what next for the 51-year-old riding legend?
Well, according to the man himself he will "definitely do this year and next year" and as the most decorated and experienced of all his weighing room colleagues, Dettori can be expected to pick up plenty of decent rides for as long as he keeps turning up at racecourses.
Whether he will ever represent the Gosden team again, only time will tell. But, in the dramatic and brilliant world that is Frankie Dettori, anything and everything is possible.
