ITB_December2019

first word

Dettori’s

tears

After a wonderful 2019 for Dettori, the Melbourne Cup did not quite go to plan, writes Paul Haigh

“

I just want to cry,” said Frankie Dettori when buttonholed by an Australian journalist in the immediate aftermath of his narrow defeat in the 2019 Melbourne Cup. The first reaction from this side of the world was to think “Oh come on Frankie, you’ve ridden 18 – or is it 19?– Group 1 winners this year, and that’s proper Group 1s not some handicap granted Group 1 status because it’s a national icon.”

Imagine if he’d said something like that. They would have chased him all the way to the airport. But Dettori is a clever man as well as one of the greatest-ever riders, and he knows how to please an audience, whether he’s winning – witness the flying dismounts borrowed from one of his heroes Angel Cordero – or losing – witness the cancelled grin and the air of crestfallen regret.

Or maybe he really meant it. Like most great champions he is a supreme competitor, and supreme competitors are never satisfied. He’s had a quite massive season, but he wanted more. And he’s addicted to adulation. Who wouldn’t be when you’re able to win it as often as he does? Then there’s the simple psychology of the victor who loves victory and loathes defeat.

Kieren Fallon explained that psychology on TV, just as he’d once explained it to me a couple of years ago when I was working on a book with him before falling out with his backing group and losing the gig.

“You learn to hate losing more than you love winning,” Fallon told me then in Dubai. “You’ll go to a meeting and ride three or four winners, then get beaten

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The last furlong of the Melbourne Cup: Frankie Dettori’s mount Master Of Reality (white cap) has drifted down the course causing interference to Il Paradiso (centre), while the race winner Vow And Declare gets a clear-ish run on the inside. Dettori’s horse was demoted to fourth, while Prince Of Arran (red cap behind) was upgraded to second and Il Paradiso, who finished fourth was placed third. Dettori (inset) was inconsolable