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It has been a thrilling, glorious and sometimes rocky path, yet now, it seems Frankie Dettori's mind is made up. The most celebrated rider of the past four decades will effectively enter retirement after the main card during the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar this Saturday, where he has three chances to secure one last top-tier victory to nearly 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 half-century, “Frankie” registers with pretty much everyone, no surname required. People know his identity, even if they have absolutely no interest in his profession. In today's world which has become divided by digital platforms and the internet, Dettori may well be the final equestrian personality who will ever experience such immediate name-recognition among a wide segment of Britain's people.

Dettori’s lifetime in the sport, after all, goes back to a time when the show A Question Of Sport regularly pulled in over 10 million audience members, and a three-year stint as a team captain was sufficient to establish him as the bubbly, irrepressible face of the sport. His last year on the show was 2004, that was also the time when he won the top jockey award for the third and last occasion. As far as many in the UK, however, he has probably been the top jockey for many seasons since.

A Hard-Earned Fame

This is, in many respects, a hard-won celebrity, a mixed blessing for events on and off the racecourse which have often pushed Dettori into the headlines, ever since that memorable day at Ascot in 1996 when he defied odds of 25,000-1 to ride all seven winners on the card.

Back in June 2000, he was rescued from a fiery crash of a light aircraft by fellow jockey, Ray Cochrane, following an accident on takeoff where the pilot lost his life. When he finally ended his quest for a Derby winner in 2007, that also became headline news.

While everyone admires a winner, they often love an imperfect hero and a return all the more. A half-year suspension after a failed drug test for cocaine could have been the end of most jockeys in their forties, more than enough time for trainers and owners to find a younger alternative. For Dettori, though, suspension in December 2012 served as a bridge to a revived partnership with John Gosden at Newmarket, and a new series of champions and classic victors, such as Enable, Golden Horn and Stradivarius.

Public Highs and Lows

The celebrated successes and lows were an essential part of his narrative, up to and including the humiliating admission in March that he filed for bankruptcy following a long-standing disagreement with HMRC regarding unpaid taxes, a situation that he attempted, and did not succeed, to keep confidential.

There were numerous turns in his story, in fact, that it can be easy to overlook that absent Dettori’s immense, once-in-a-generation skill, there would have been no story at all.

Natural Ability

It was evident from his earliest days as a teenage apprentice that there was an instinctive rapport between horse and rider when Dettori was on board.

Horses ran for him, and got better under him. Back in 1990, he was the first teenager since Lester Piggott to reach 100 winners in a season, and also announced his arrival among the elite with a Group One double at Ascot, on the same day that he would charge without a loss just six years later. The famous flying dismount, adopted from the US legend Angel Cordero Jr, was added to Dettori’s repertoire in 1994, and the thrill from riding a big-race winner has always stayed with him. Neither has the talent of sensing, with almost foresight, where to position, when to strike and where openings will appear.

The Future Ahead

But what next for the recognizable figure of UK horse racing? It will not be easy to finally let go, whether or not Dettori pursues his expressed wish to take “a few rides in South America, which is something I’ve always wanted to experience”. It is not, after all, an ambition that he has mentioned previously.

However, the disastrous choice to accept the tax advice that led to his dispute with HMRC indicates that he will not end his career with sufficient funds in the bank to kick back and take it easy.

Fresh Ventures

He has been appointed to a new position as a “global ambassador” with the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian's growing Amo Racing enterprise. Dettori told racing presenter Matt Chapman last Friday this was the primary reason for his exit now, along with the chance to conclude at the Breeders’ Cup. “Such chances don’t come along, very often. I appreciate the structure – this is a young team with big ambitions,” explained the jockey.

Joorabchian, himself, was effusive in his compliments for his new recruit on Thursday at Del Mar. “He is an icon, a genuine legend in the sport,” he stated. “When you talk about great sportsmen such as LeBron James, Currys, Messis and Pelés and similar figures, Frankie represents that to horse racing. When you go into Royal Ascot, you notice a statue, you realize that he has influenced on so many lives across the world.

“He’s not here|“He isn't here} to entertain people, he’s here to actually work and he will collaborate with us closely. He will be involved in all aspects of our operations [but] he won’t be a racing manager. He is an international ambassador.”

Television reality shows are another option, though previous appearances on Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity often showed a moodier side of his personality, beneath the cheerful public persona. On both shows, he was an early exit due to viewer votes.

It may be that Dettori himself is unsure what he will do and how he will fill his time once his race-riding days ends. And for another 24 hours at least, he remains an elite professional jockey, focused on three rides at one of the globe's prestigious and dazzling events on the schedule.

The Final Ride

A five-year-old filly called Argine will be Dettori’s final Grade One mount in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the identical event where he achieved his first Breeders’ Cup success in 1994. Her performance in Japan in Japan suggests that she needs to find to figure, but few riders in history have ever risen to an occasion like Frankie Dettori.

One last time, cue Frankie?