Frankie Dettori and John Gosden ‘take a sabbatical’ after Royal Ascot rumpus

Frankie Dettori and John Gosden, one of the most successful jockey-trainer combinations of the past eight years, have decided to “take a sabbatical” following talks on Friday night.

Gosden publicly criticised the 51-year-old jockey for the defeat of three high-profile horses at Royal Ascot. Normally pulling a jockey up for a bad ride would be done in private, so it can be taken as a sign of Gosden’s frustration with Dettori.

The jockey failed to get the hood off Lord North at the start of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes – after which several seasoned observers said they had never seen Gosden so angry on a racecourse – got too far back on Stradivarius in a slowly run Gold Cup, and ditto Saga, beaten a head in the Britannia.

Dettori returned from a pre-arranged break to visit his father in Italy on Thursday, only to find he had not been booked for any of the Gosden stable’s three runners at Newmarket on Saturday. His sole ride on the card is Lezoo, trained by Ralph Beckett and owned by Marc Chan, a Hong Kong-based friend of the jockey.

Gosden said on Friday night: “Following speculation in the press, Frankie and I have amicably decided to take a sabbatical from the trainer-jockey relationship but we remain the closest of friends and colleagues.

“Frankie has been – and always will be – one of the family here so I wanted to meet face to face after he returned from his holiday.”

Until now, Dettori has managed to do what no other top jockey has ever achieved, which is to ride almost on a part-time basis on weekends, high days and at the big meetings.

That has been to stop burnout and extend his career into his fifties, which is fine when you are winning but, when things start to go wrong, people are bound to start wondering if you are as sharp as someone riding day in and day out.

Dettori has had only 87 domestic rides this calendar year, and fewer than 1,000 in the past five seasons. Royal Ascot top jockey Ryan Moore, by contrast, has had nearly twice as many domestically in 2022 despite his commitments in Ireland.

Gosden had given a slightly pointed statement to the Racing Post on Friday morning, alluding to the jockey’s almost part-time status. “Frankie was in Italy for a wedding in the week before Royal Ascot. Obviously he was at Ascot all last week and then went to Sardinia after racing on the Saturday. I assume he will be back in the UK today, when I will be able to see him for a meeting.”

Betfair opened a book on Dettori’s replacement as first jockey at Clarehaven Stables with Hollie Doyle at 4-11 and James Doyle at 9-2 from 7-1. But Gosden added in his statement on Friday night: “I do not intend to appoint a stable jockey.”

Colin Keane, the Irish champion, is also the subject of a controversial jockey change on Saturday when he replaces Rob Hornby on the Juddmonte-owned Epsom third Westover in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh.