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It has been an exhilarating, magnificent and at times bumpy ride, yet now, it seems the famed jockey's decision is final. The most celebrated jockey over the last 40 years is set to enter retirement after the main card at the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar on Saturday, when he will have three opportunities to secure one last Grade One winner to his almost 300 on his record already. The sport might not see a career quite like it again.

A Household Name

Together with racing great Lester Piggott and maybe John McCririck over the past 50 years, “Frankie” registers with pretty much everyone, no surname required. The public knows his identity, even if they have no interest at all in his profession. In a world that has been fragmented by digital platforms and online networks, Dettori may well be the final equestrian personality that will ever enjoy such instant brand recognition across a broad swathe of Britain's people.

Dettori’s lifetime in horse racing, in fact, dates back to a time when the show A Question Of Sport regularly pulled in over 10 million viewers, and his three-year role as a team captain was sufficient to cement him as the lively, irrepressible face of the sport. His final year on the show was 2004, which was also the year when he won the Flat jockeys’ title for the third and last occasion. As far as much of the British public, however, he has likely been the champion in most years after that.

A Hard-Earned Fame

This is, in many respects, a hard-earned fame, a mixed blessing for events both on and off the track that have repeatedly pushed Dettori onto the front pages, since that memorable day at Ascot in 1996 when he defied odds of 25,000-1 to ride all seven winners on the card.

In June 2000, he was rescued from a fiery crash of a small plane by his fellow rider, Ray Cochrane, after a crash on takeoff in which the plane’s pilot lost his life. When at last concluded his pursuit for a Derby winner in 2007, that too was headline news.

While everyone admires a champion, they frequently adore an imperfect hero and a return even more. A half-year suspension following a positive drug test for cocaine would have been the end of most jockeys in their forties, more than enough time for owners and trainers to find a younger alternative. For Dettori, though, his 2012 suspension served as a bridge to a revived partnership with trainer John Gosden at Newmarket, and a new series of champions and classic victors, including Enable, Golden Horn and Stradivarius.

Ups and Downs

The celebrated successes and setbacks have been a crucial element of Dettori’s story, right up until the humiliating admission this past March that he filed for bankruptcy following a long-standing disagreement with HMRC regarding unpaid taxes, a circumstance that he attempted, and failed, to keep private.

There have been numerous turns to the tale, indeed, that it can be easy to forget that absent Dettori’s immense, generational talent, there would be no narrative whatsoever.

Natural Ability

It was evident from his earliest days as a teenage apprentice that he had an instinctive rapport between horse and rider whenever Dettori was in the saddle.

Steeds performed for him, and improved for him. Back in 1990, he became the first teen since Piggott to reach 100 winners in one season, and also announced his emergence among the elite with a Group One double at Ascot, on the same card that he would dominate through unbeaten only six years later. His iconic flying dismount, copied from the American legend Angel Cordero Jr, was added to his routine in 1994, and the thrill from riding a big-race winner has never left him. Nor has the gift of knowing, with something akin to clairvoyance, where to sit, when to make a move and where openings will appear.

What Comes Next?

But what now for the public face of British racing? It will not be easy to finally let go, whether or not Dettori fulfils his expressed wish to accept some mounts in South America, which is something I’ve always wanted to do”. It is not, in fact, an ambition that he had mentioned previously.

But the calamitous decision to follow tax guidance that led to his tax issues indicates that Dettori will not draw down the curtain with enough money saved up to relax and take it easy.

New Role and Opportunities

He has been confirmed in a new role as an international ambassador with the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian's burgeoning Amo Racing enterprise. He explained to Matt Chapman on At The Races on Friday this was the primary reason for his departure now, along with the chance to finish at the Breeders’ Cup. “Such chances are rare, frequently. I like the set-up – this is a young team with big ambitions,” said the rider.

Joorabchian, himself, was effusive in his compliments for his new ambassador at Del Mar on Thursday. “He’s an icon, he is a true legend of the sport,” he stated. “When you talk about great sportsmen like LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Lionel Messi and Pelé and people like that, Frankie represents that for horse racing. When visiting Royal Ascot, you notice a statue, you realize that he has influenced on so many lives across the world.

“He’s not here|“He isn't here} to entertain people, he's here to work and he will be working with us very closely. He will participate in every area of our business [but] he won’t be a racing manager. He is a global ambassador.”

Television reality shows is another possibility, although earlier outings on Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity often showed a more somber aspect of his personality, beneath the cheerful public image. On both shows, he was an early exit of the public vote.

It may be that Dettori himself does not really know what he'll do and how he will fill his time once his race-riding days are over. And for another one more day, he stays a top-level professional jockey, concentrating on three mounts at one of the globe's prestigious and dazzling events in the calendar.

One Last Mount

A five-year-old filly named Argine will be his final Grade One mount in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the identical event where he achieved his initial Breeders’ Cup win in 1994. Her form at home in Japan suggests that she has something to improve to compete, but few riders in history have ever risen to an occasion like Frankie Dettori.

For one final time, cue Frankie?