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The journey has been a thrilling, glorious and sometimes bumpy ride, yet now, it seems Frankie Dettori's mind is made up. The most storied jockey of the past four decades is set to enter retirement following the primary events at the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar this Saturday, where he has three opportunities to secure one last Grade One winner to his almost 300 already in his record. Racing may not see a career quite like it again.

An Iconic Figure

Together with Lester Piggott and perhaps John McCririck over the past 50 years, “Frankie” registers with pretty much everyone, no surname required. The public knows who he is, even if they possess no interest at all in his profession. In today's world that has been divided by social media and the internet, Dettori may well be the last racing figure who will ever experience such immediate name-recognition across a broad swathe of Britain's people.

His entire career in horse racing, in fact, dates back to a time when the show A Question Of Sport often attracted more than 10 million audience members, and a three-year stint as a team captain was more than enough to establish him as the bubbly, irrepressible face of the sport. His final year on the program came in 2004, which was also the year when he won the Flat jockeys’ title for the third and final time. For many in the UK, however, he has probably been the top jockey in most years since.

A Hard-Earned Fame

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

Back in June 2000, he was rescued from the burning wreckage of a small plane by fellow jockey, Ray Cochrane, after a crash on takeoff in which the plane’s pilot was killed. When at last concluded his pursuit for a Derby victory in 2007, that too was front-page news.

And if everyone loves a winner, they frequently adore a flawed hero and a return all the more. A six-month ban after a failed drug test for cocaine could have been the finish for many riders in their 40s, plenty of time for trainers and owners to find a younger alternative. For Dettori, however, his 2012 suspension served as a bridge to a revived partnership with trainer John Gosden in Newmarket, and a new series of champions and classic victors, including Enable, Golden Horn and Stradivarius.

Ups and Downs

The celebrated successes and lows were a crucial element of his narrative, right up until the humiliating admission in March that he was filing for bankruptcy following a long-standing disagreement with HMRC over unpaid taxes, a situation that Dettori tried, and did not succeed, to keep private.

There have been so many twists in his story, indeed, that it can be easy to forget that without his tremendous, generational talent, there would have been no story at all.

Early Talent and Instincts

It was clear from his earliest days as a young apprentice that he had an instinctive rapport with the horses when Dettori was in the saddle.

Horses ran for him, and improved for him. In 1990, he was the first teenager since Lester Piggott to achieve 100 wins in one season, and also announced his arrival at the highest level with a Group One double at Ascot, on the same card that he would dominate without a loss only six years later. The famous flying dismount, copied from the US legend Angel Cordero Jr, was incorporated into his routine in 1994, and the buzz from winning major races has never left 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 recognizable figure of British racing? It will not be easy to step away completely, regardless if Dettori pursues his expressed wish to accept some mounts in South America, which is something I’ve always wanted to do”. This is not, after all, a goal that he has mentioned until now.

However, the disastrous choice to accept the tax advice that resulted in his dispute with HMRC means that Dettori will not draw down the curtain with enough money saved up to relax and take it easy.

New Role and Opportunities

He has been confirmed in a new role as an international ambassador with the football super-agent Kia Joorabchian’s burgeoning Amo Racing operation. He explained to racing presenter Matt Chapman last Friday this was the main reason for his departure now, along with the chance to finish at the Breeders’ Cup. “These opportunities are rare, frequently. I like the set-up – it's a youthful team with huge goals,” explained the jockey.

Joorabchian, himself, was effusive in his compliments for his new recruit at Del Mar on Thursday. “He’s an icon, a genuine legend of the sport,” he stated. “When you talk about great sportsmen such as LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Lionel Messi and Pelé and people like that, Frankie is that for horse racing. When visiting Royal Ascot, you see a statue there, you know that he has influenced on so many lives worldwide.

“He’s not here|“He isn't here} to entertain people, he’s here to actually work and he will be working with us very closely. He will be involved in every area of our business [but] he won’t be 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 of his personality, beneath the cheerful public image. In both programs, he was an early exit due to viewer votes.

It's possible that Dettori personally does not really know what he will do and how he will fill his time after his riding career are over. And for another 24 hours at least, he stays an elite professional jockey, focused on three mounts at one of the globe's prestigious and dazzling events in the calendar.

The Final Ride

A five-year-old filly named Argine will be Dettori’s final Grade One mount in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the identical event in which he registered his first Breeders’ Cup success in 1994. Her performance in Japan indicates that she needs to improve to compete, yet few jockeys in history have ever excelled in big moments like Frankie Dettori.

One last time, cue Frankie?