FRANKIE DETTORI is riding big-money winners in America – including one for an English trainer who broke rules 527 times.
The legendary jockey is notching up prize money of around £8,500 per race at Santa Anita racecourse in California.
APDettori is bringing in more than £8,000 a race in America – after packing up and leaving Britain[/caption]
Dettori, 53, set off for the States after being the first voted off I’m a Celeb… and failing to make an impact in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.
But he is back doing what he does best and banging in winners at a decent rate.
That includes a notable winner for 41-year-old Dan Blacker, a trainer who grew up in Oxford before moving to the US.
Dettori was victorious on Blacker’s Virat in a six-furlong turf race last Friday worth more than £18,000 to winning connections.
Blacker made headlines towards the end of last year after he was found to have broken the same rule 527 times.
He took ‘full responsibility’ for failing to ensure his horses had a vet examination within 72 hours of an official workout.
A California horse Racing Board complaint alleged an investigation discovered some 527 separate violations of the same official policy since January 1, 2022.
But Blacker, who bosses did not consider a ‘red flag’, was allowed to carry on saddling horses.
One of those was Virat, and the trainer spoke of how much it meant to him to have Dettori atop one of his horses in the winners’ enclosure.
He said: “The horse ran well obviously, but it came down to the tactics used by Frankie.
“This win really means a lot to me.
“Back home, I would watch him from the sidelines when year after year he was champion jockey and won all the big races.”
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