“I wore flamboyant colours, I was cheeky, shouted at people, did my own thing. You loved me, you hated me but you couldn’t ignore me.”

FRANKIE DETTORI knows very well that there are many turned off by his effervescence. The above quote, from a Daily Mail interview seven years ago is a clear illustration of that self-awareness.

Thankfully, he doesn’t care.

One of the greatest jockeys the world has seen, Dettori became the first teenager since Lester Piggott to boot home 100 winners in a season in 1990. He is a multiple champion now, has won Group/Grade 1s all over the world, went through the card (seven races) on Queen Elizabeth II Stakes Day in 2006 and, in recent years, displayed the hunger to scale the mountain top once more following his split with Sheikh Mohammed after 18 years and then a six-month suspension for failing a drug test due to taking cocaine.

This year has seen the 46-year-old at his very best once more. Enable is the flagship horse, having bagged three Oaks and a King George and gone even further clear at the top of the market for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe than she does in her races, but Cracksman, Big Orange, Al Wukair, Edict Of Nantes and Daban are others he has propelled to high-profile successes.

It hasn’t been all plain sailing, as a broken shoulder caused him to miss out on probably five Royal Ascot winners, while the brilliant Lady Aurelia, on whom he had won the Prix Morny and Queen Mary Stakes last year, was just nabbed on the line in the Nunthorpe Stakes by Marsha, though Dettori was convinced Wesley Ward’s filly had held on and raised his arm in a victory salute passing the line.

There were many who delighted in him getting it wrong but the fact of the matter is that Dettori is one of the few figures around the world who transcends racing, whose name might register to those with no interest in the sport. We are speaking as he travels to give a talk at Championship soccer club Norwich FC. There aren’t many colleagues with similar appointments in their diaries.

EXTROVERT

He has gotten plenty from the sport and industry, but been pretty selfless too in terms of giving his time back. His extrovert personality goes into overdrive once the TV camera is switched on and if that grates with some who still prefer to hide whatever light they have under a bushel, racing is in Dettori’s debt that he has gone out of his way to promote it, even beyond his spectacular achievements on the track.

Ireland is the land of the nod, wink and tell ‘em nuttin’ but we always took to Frankie and he has responded in kind. He guided Pips Pride to victory in the Phoenix Stakes for Richard Hannon Snr in 1992 and, in the intervening quarter of a century, has displayed his often imitated but rarely bettered flying dismounts on countless occasions, and never been put off by the unwillingness of the generally more guarded trainers on this side of the water to have a kiss planted on their cheeks.

His chief supporter now, John Gosden had Enable in tip-top shape for his latest top-flight win in Ireland, as she coasted home in what was little more than a procession in the Irish Oaks in July. Balanchine provided the first Irish classic in the Irish Derby in 1994 but it is the Irish Champion Stakes that has proved most bountiful.

In all, he has won the race six times, with perhaps the standout being Fantastic Light’s duel all the way up the straight with Galileo in 2001. That is saying something given Snow Fairy and Golden Horn are others on the CV but this battle between two greats, equine and human, was otherworldly. It may be 16 years ago now but the duel that unfolded all the way up the straight between Dettori on Fantastic Light, and Michael Kinane on Galileo remains vivid in the mind’s eye. And it clearly figures high on the Italian’s list too.

“Two great champions and the gloves were off,” recalls Dettori. “It was one of my best rides, I must say. It worked out exactly as we planned. The distance was only a neck in the end and we had our tactics spot on. We kicked at the right time, the pacemaker did a great job and those kinds of races, you need everything to go for you and on that day, they did.”

RECORD CHASER

Kinane lost out on that occasion but holds the record for wins in the race with one more than Dettori, who would love to match his former sparring partner, idol and friend.

“I’ve got six Irish Champions and Kinane has seven and it would be an achievement if I could equal his record, one of my great heroes,” says Dettori. “We had some right scraps in the ‘90s and 2000s. He was the ultimate professional, a great competitor but also off the field, a good mentor and a good friend.”

If 2001 at Leopardstown is an obvious highlight of his flying visits to Ireland, another came two years later at the Curragh, when Vintage Tipple gave him the second of his four Irish Oaks victories.

“One very popular one is winning for Paddy Mullins in the Oaks. I got some reception that day.”

Last year, he took the advice of Ruby Walsh to jump Wicklow Brave off in front and beat Order Of St George in the Irish St Leger for Mullins’s son Willie.

“That’s right, kept it in the family and beat a 1/9 shot.”

He is back in Stillorgan today for Irish Champions Weekend, riding Persuasive for Gosden in the Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron Stakes. He was still on the lookout for a mount in the QIPCO Champion Stakes as we spoke but a couple of days later, news broke that he had picked up the plum ride on the Martyn Meade-trained Eminent, with Ryan Moore, who was on board when the Frankel colt won a Group 2 at Deauville, getting the leg up on Churchill.

The love affair with the Irish isn’t entirely universal though. Having been tipped off to ask him about an apparent popularity with the fruit sellers and purveyors of Toblerone bars, the question is put and Dettori starts laughing.

“Right… did you hear the story?”

No actually. Pray tell? And he does, with evident glee.

“I went over to ride Balanchine in the Irish Derby. Obviously I really fancied her and being Italian and holding onto those kind of superstitions I thought one of the ladies selling fruit and chocolate bars could give me the luck that might just help me win it. I think the lady was called Lily.

“So I gave her 20 quid and she wanted to give me the bag with all the goodies inside. I’ve said to her ‘No, no, just hold onto it, I’ll pick it up on the way out’ because I have to go and get changed and so on and so forth.

“She said to me ‘No bother, I’ll have the bag here for you on the way out.’

“We won the race and after the presentation, I was running a bit late. We had to fly back and we had to get there before the airport shut as we were flying private.

“So I’m legging across the racecourse and I got to the exit. The lady with the bag is waiting for me. So I grabbed the bag and carried on running. I thought, I’ve given her 20 quid beforehand so I’m even but she starts screaming at the top of her voice – you’re talking about Irish Derby Day, packed with people – at the top of her voice she starts screaming ‘Stop the black man that’s running that’s robbed me!’

“I’m running with this bag, and I’ve got my racing bag. I’m running across and looking for the black man. Then I realise, I’m the black man! The Sardinian colour obviously stood out. I thought ‘Shit, I’m the black man’ and just kept on running.”

***

DETTORI’S shoulder is still a bit sore and he rushed back to ride Enable at the Curragh. Jockeys are not of this earth when it comes to discomfort however. Man’s agony might not register for these diminutive blocks of granite.

“It’s good, it’s healed but it will be a while before I won’t have any pain. You always have some sort of pain or injury but as far as I’m concerned it’s okay. It’ll be three months on the 13th of September so it’s not been long. I’m doing alright.”

That’s an understatement but missing Ascot hurt more than any physical agony.

“It was hard to take but hey, it’s part and parcel of my job. You do get injured, you do get suspended, you do miss good rides. But then the world goes around and sometimes I fall in for some good rides.

“When I did break my shoulder it was all about damage limitation and trying to get back as soon as I could. There’s no point sitting in the corner and crying. Nobody’s gonna make you feel better, you just have to deal with it.”

All the substitutes heralded the feedback they got from Dettori, encapsulating how much of a team player he is.

“When I do come back they will be my horses again. All the effort I have put in, if I kept it to myself it would be quite selfish. For the sake of the lads, the trainers, the horse itself and the owners, the least I could do was give my little input. Also, it kept me involved, it kept me interested by watching it.”

The bitters of Twitter had a field day after Lady Aurelia’s reverse but it comes as no surprise that what they think doesn’t bother him in the slightest.

“You can’t make everybody happy. I just go along and do my business and everybody can make up their own mind.”

The fact is, it has been a wonderful year, bulwarked by a renewed partnership with the man now revelling in the moniker of Johnny G.

“I’ve been away 18 years but when I came back with John it was like I never left. He’s an amazing trainer. He trains the horses but he trains me as well. He gets the best out of me. He’s got a knack to pick me up and give me confidence.”

While there are many talented inmates at Clarehaven, Enable is the undisputed superstar.

“Any year you can ride a classic winner is great. Enable has been a revelation and she’s really made my season. She won two classics by five lengths, the King George by four and a half, the Yorkshire Oaks by five, and she has really captured the people’s imagination in the process. She’s got great lungs, she is a good stayer and she keeps winning by a big margin. That’s what people like to see.

“She’s got a great constitution. There’s a lot of pressure on John to keep bringing her to the races 100% every time. Listen, he’s been doing it 40 years, like all good trainers he knows exactly what to do.

“She’s a bit like Sea The Stars. She’s been out every month. She’s not kept wrapped up in cotton wool. She’s doing it on the track and that’s why people latch on to her.”

He hopes that she will be in similar condition for the Arc and agrees that she is the one they all have to beat if able to reproduce her form to date. Whatever happens, those that wrote him off as a beaten docket have been proven very wrong.

“Of course I’m very proud of it. I’m very blessed that I got another chance. I never really doubted myself in those dark moments but now that I did achieve what I wanted to achieve it seems twice as sweet.”

Was there ever a chance of linking up in a more official capacity with Aidan O’Brien, having won a St Leger on Scorpion and ridden Camelot in the Arc?

“I never had the chance. I did ride for Aidan and spent a week at Ballydoyle. He’s a genius at what he’s doing and you can’t state highly enough what a great operation that is from the breeding to the training. The achievement is mind-boggling when you look at the records. Wonderful.”

Friendship with Johnny Murtagh

“We have grown up together, him and his family and my family. He spent some time with me in England and when I go over I spend some time with him. He’s a great friend and I’m so pleased he’s doing so well with his training.”

Frankie the trainer?

“I wouldn’t have the patience of Johnny. Johnny is a much stronger character than me. I wouldn’t be able to do it. My wife says I’ve got an attention span of a flea.”

Frankie the TV pundit then…

“Yeah, 100%. That’s there for me if I want it and I probably will do it because it’ll keep me in racing.”