30 years have passed since that 28 September 1996 when Frankie Dettori, the man who should probably be recognised as the greatest Italian jockey of all time, became the protagonist of an extraordinary feat: winning all seven races on the card at the Ascot meeting, an event that has never been repeated and which certainly contributed decisively to creating the legend of the Italian jockey. It was the Festival of Bbritish Racing and Lanfranco won the following races (in order race horse and opening odds)
1) Cumberland Lodge Stakes – Wall Street – 2/1
2) Diadem Stakes – Diffident – 12/1
3) Queen Elizabet II Stakes – Mark of Esteem – 100/30
4) Tote Festival Handicap – Decorated Hero – 7/1
5) Rosemary Stakes – Fatefully – 7/4
6) Blue Seal Stakes – Lochangel – 5/4
7) Gordon Carter Handicap – Fujiyama Crest – 2/1
The BBC, which at that time broadcast the results within its own propgramming between one sport and another, decided to overturn the afternoon schedule in order to broadcast live nationwide the final races of the Ascot day with the intuiton that the great feat might be achieved (as then happened).
The event cost the British betting industry more than 40 million pounds at the time. Many small on-course bookmakers went bankrupt that very day, while individual punters became millionaires: the most famous case was that of Darren Yates, who with a bet of just 62 pounds won more than 550.000. In reality the mathematical odds of the accumulator according to the official odds were more than 25 thousand times the stake.
Another anecdote relating to this magnificent day concerns Fujiyama Crest. the last horse of that “Magnificent seven”. According to reports of the time, in fact, when he reached the end of his career) Frankie in fact bought him at auction for around 2000 pounds and kept him privately until the day of his death in 2015. Moreover Dettori was not supposed to ride Fujiyama Crest. The horse, in fact, was initially supposed to be ridden by another jockey, Michael Roberts. But because he could not make the required weight limit for that race, trainer Michael Stoute decided to entrust the horse to Frankie Dettori at the last moment.
In 2023, Ascot racecourse paid tribute to Frankie Dettori by unveiling a life-size bronze statue depicting him in his famous celebration (the “flying dismount”, the leap from the saddle). The statue is positioned right near the winners’ paddock, the place that on 28 September 1996 saw him as the absolute protagonist seven consecutive times.
