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It has been a thrilling, glorious and at times bumpy ride, but this time, it appears Frankie Dettori's decision is final. The most celebrated jockey of the past 40 years is set to enter retirement following the primary events during the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar this Saturday, when he will have three opportunities to secure one last Grade One winner to his almost 300 on his record already. Racing may not see a career quite like it again.

An Iconic Figure

Together with racing great Lester Piggott and maybe John McCririck in the last 50 years, Frankie Dettori registers with almost everybody, no surname required. The public knows who he is, even if they possess absolutely no interest in what he does. In a world which has become fragmented by social media and the internet, Dettori may well be the final equestrian personality that will ever experience such immediate brand recognition across a broad swathe of the British population.

His entire career in horse racing, in fact, dates back to a time when the show A Question Of Sport regularly pulled in more than 10 million audience members, and his three-year role as a team captain was sufficient to establish him as the bubbly, irrepressible face of racing. His final year on the show was 2004, which was also the year when he won the Flat jockeys’ title for the third and final time. For much of the British public, however, he has likely been the champion for many seasons since.

A Hard-Won Celebrity

This is, in many ways, a hard-earned fame, a double-edged reward for events on and off the track which have often propelled Dettori into the headlines, ever since the unforgettable afternoon at Ascot in 1996 when he overcame massive 25,000-1 odds to win all seven races that day.

Back in June 2000, he was pulled from a fiery crash of a light aircraft by his fellow rider, Ray Cochrane, following an accident on takeoff in which the plane’s pilot was killed. When he finally ended his quest for a Derby winner in 2007, that too was headline news.

While everyone admires a winner, they often love a flawed hero and a comeback even more. A half-year suspension following a positive drug test for cocaine could have been the end of most jockeys in their forties, plenty of time for owners and trainers to seek a younger replacement. For Dettori, however, his 2012 suspension served as a bridge to a revived partnership with trainer John Gosden at Newmarket, and a fresh succession of winners and Classic winners, including Enable, Golden Horn and Stradivarius.

Ups and Downs

The celebrated successes and lows were a crucial element of his narrative, up to and including the humiliating admission this past March that he was filing for bankruptcy following a long-standing disagreement with HMRC over unpaid taxes, a situation that Dettori tried, and failed, to keep private.

There were numerous turns in his story, indeed, that it's easy to forget that without Dettori’s immense, once-in-a-generation skill, there would be no narrative whatsoever.

Natural Ability

It was clear from his earliest days as a young apprentice that he had an instinctive rapport between horse and rider when Dettori was on board.

Horses ran for him, and improved for him. In 1990, he was the first teenager since Piggott to reach 100 winners in a season, and also marked his emergence at the highest level with a Group One double at Ascot, on the same card that he would charge without a loss only six years later. His iconic flying dismount, adopted from the US legend Angel Cordero Jr, was incorporated into his routine in 1994, and the thrill from riding a big-race winner has always stayed with him. Nor has the gift of sensing, with something akin to clairvoyance, where to sit, when to strike and where the gaps will appear.

The Future Ahead

But what next for the public face of UK horse racing? It will not be easy to step away completely, regardless if Dettori fulfils his apparent desire to accept some mounts in South America, which is something I’ve always wanted to experience”. It is not, in fact, a goal that he has mentioned previously.

However, the disastrous choice to accept the tax advice that resulted in his tax issues means that he will not end his career with enough money in the bank to kick back and take it easy.

New Role and Opportunities

He has been appointed to a new position as a “global ambassador” with the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian’s burgeoning Amo Racing operation. Dettori told racing presenter Matt Chapman on Friday this was the main reason for his departure now, along with the chance to finish at the Breeders’ Cup. “These opportunities are rare, very often. I appreciate the structure – this is a young team with big ambitions,” explained the jockey.

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

“He’s not here|“He isn't here} to amuse audiences, he's here to work and he will working with us closely. He will be involved in all aspects of our business though he won't serve as a racing manager. He is a global ambassador.”

Reality TV is another possibility, though previous appearances on Big Brother and I’m A Celebrity … have tended to reveal a moodier side to Dettori’s character, beneath the cheerful public image. On both shows, he was an early exit of the public vote.

It may be that Dettori personally is unsure what he'll do and how he will fill his time after his race-riding days are over. And for another one more day, he remains an elite professional jockey, focused on three rides at one of the most prestigious and dazzling events on the schedule.

One Last Mount

A five-year-old mare called Argine will be Dettori’s final Grade One mount in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the identical event where he achieved his initial Breeders’ Cup win in 1994. Her performance in Japan in Japan suggests that she needs to find to figure, yet few jockeys historically have excelled in big moments like Lanfranco Dettori.

One last time, is it time for Frankie?