By the time Shohei Ohtani hit his final hit early in the evening of September 19, sending another official Rawlings baseball (made in Costa Rica) into the stands at Miami’s loan Depot Park for his sixth hit and third home run against the Miami Marlins, the Los Angeles Dodgers fan’s thoughts were already on a hospital room in Long Island, New York, where Frankie Dettori was being treated for a dislocated shoulder suffered that afternoon at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Mr. 6 eats 6, hello Mr. 7 eats 7.
Both Ohtani and Dettori are considered transcendent sports stars, the gifts that just keep on giving. Ohtani had a good year—his first with the Dodgers—before he hit the Marlins, while Dettori has provided a growing list of highlights in his first season in the United States.
There are no freak accidents in horse racing. They happen as a matter of business, and jockeys know the score. One of the most dangerous places is always the starting gate, a setting where these eyes witnessed the fatal head injury suffered by Alvaro Pineda at Santa Anita Park in 1975.
Dettori had just entered the outside gate in the final race of the day on the first mare Beautiful Liza as she lifted and tossed her 53-year-old racehorse onto the Aqueduct lawn.
“He landed hard on his right elbow and his shoulder popped out,” Dettori’s agent Ron Anderson said on September 20. “They put it back in place at the hospital and he was released. He’s uncomfortable, but he’s feeling better this morning. He’s going to see a specialist on Monday to see where we’re at, but we’re not going to be in the Finger Lakes.”
In any other context, such a comment would have sounded like a joke. But Anderson was on the mark. Dettori’s resume includes two Epsom Derby (G1) wins, three Japan Cup (G1) wins, four Dubai World Cup (G1) wins and six Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) wins. On Monday, he heads to Farmington, NY, to try to add the Lady Finger Stakes and/or the Aspirant Stakes to his trophy cabinet, which speaks volumes about how Dettori is approaching his American adventure.
Dettori has ridden 364 races in 2024, with 64 winners accounting for the bulk of the $10.7 million his horses have earned. Compared to the 1,144 ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. or the 1,110 ridden by Tyler Gaffalione through September 20, Frankie looks like a man on a dangerous vacation. But his numbers average $29,523 per ride, second only to the blistering $32,960 pace set by Flavien Prat this year.
“Obviously I’m trying to be very selective with him,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to be selective with his trips, where he deserves to go. But he’s happy to jump on a plane and go anywhere. He doesn’t care. He’s done 14 races (in North America) this year. Finger Lakes would be 15.”
Frankie Dettori leads Beaute Cachee to a commanding win in the Matchmaker Stakes at Monmouth Park
We are approaching the 28th anniversary of Dettori’s Magnificent Seven debut, a very Shohei Ohtani-like day that Dettori recorded for posterity at Ascot on September 28, 1996. It was no royal encounter, but a fairly well-chosen autumn programme, with a headline card featuring the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1).
Dettori, a few months shy of his 26th birthday, was riding under contract to Godolphin. He won his first two races with Wall Street and Diffident, followed by Mark of Esteem on Queen Elizabeth. Decorated Hero took Dettori into the fourth race, at odds of 7-1, which proved to be the luck of the day. In defence, the bookmakers slashed the odds on his last three races, but it was still a costly affair after wins by Fatefully, Lochangel and Fujiyama Crest.
The BBC switched to regular television to show the final of seven horse racing scenes. Dettori’s antics reportedly cost the bookmakers £30 million in commission, real money in 1996, and the young rider was on his way to a reputation he has never relinquished.
Sweeping a day at a place like Ascot is unthinkable, but it’s not the first time a rider has won seven races on a show. Both Ortiz and Gaffalione have pulled off the difficult trick, along with Laffit Pincay Jr., Jerry Bailey, Victor Espinoza, Luis Saez, Paco Lopez, Drayden Van Dyke, Tim Thornton and Alejandro Medallin, among others. Russell Baze has done it twice, and earlier this month, Manny Franco won seven races at Downs Colony.
Richard Hughes ran 7-for-8 at England’s Royal Windsor Racecourse in 2012. The great Sir Gordon Richards ran 6-for-6 at Chepstow in Wales in October 1933 on his way to 12 straight wins in three days. And, lest anyone forget, apprentice Hubert Jones won eight races from 13 horses at Agua Caliente on June 11, 1944. Forty-three years later, Jones was on the stewards’ stand at Santa Anita to officially put Pincay in seventh place.
More than 80 professional baseball players have hit 6-for-6 in a nine-inning game, making Ohtani the latest in a long and varied list. And what is it? Just on April 6, fellow countryman Dettori won six straight races at Santa Anita Park to kick off a memorable season that has seen his victories, so far, rank at seven different tracks in the United States.
“At first people were wondering if he was retiring, as he announced last year, or if he was here to race,” Anderson said. “Not anymore. In fact, he has three more years of paperwork to race here, so I think that’s like the timeline for any retirement.”
Dettori’s immediate plan is to hop from the Finger Lakes next week back to Santa Anita for California Crowning Day on September 28, then continue riding at Aqueduct until it’s time to leave camp. Del Mar and Breeders’ Cup weekend in early November. All of that is on hold, for now, but only a fool would rule him out. As Dettori relayed in a text message Friday afternoon:
“I’ll be back.”
