IN SEVENTH HEAVEN

Day Dettori earned superstar status

- DAVID YATES

HOW fitting that Frankie Dettori should bring the curtain down on his career in Britain at Ascot.

There are milestones to the Italian’s legendary decades in the saddle elsewhere.

Goodwood provided his first British winner, Lizzie Hare, as a 16-year-old apprentice in June 1987.

Epsom was the scene of his two Derby triumphs, aboard Authorized in 2007 and Golden Horn in 2015, and Newmarket is the place where he is most prolific, passing the post in front no fewer than 500 times.

But Ascot, where he competes before a home crowd for the final time on tomorrow’s QIPCO British Champions Day card, is where Dettori, who with wife Catherine leaves Britain for America at Christmas to continue riding in California in 2024, first became a household name.

The first of a barely credible haul of 280 Group One victories across the globe arrived via Markofdistinction, saddled by mentor and compatriot Luca Cumani, in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at the royal venue 33 years ago.