Dettori to move his tack East; will ride at Gulfstream for 'several weeks'
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Frankie Dettori will be on the move next week.
Beginning Feb. 28, Dettori will begin riding on a daily basis at Gulfstream Park for several weeks. Dettori is currently based at Santa Anita and said between races on Sunday that he will be based at Gulfstream Park before a scheduled trip to Dubai in early April.
Through Monday, Dettori was tied for eighth in the jockey standings at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting with 10 wins from 67 mounts. Four of the wins have been in graded stakes. Dettori has 15 mounts at Santa Anita this weekend – five on Friday, four on Saturday, and six on Sunday.
The move to Florida was announced last weekend by his agent, Ron Anderson.
“I left it up to Ron,” Dettori said. “I possibly could be back [to Santa Anita] for [March] 15th.”
Dettori playfully said Anderson’s plan for him to move to Florida was one he knew was important.
“I have two bosses,” he said. “I only had one before, my wife. Now I have my wife and Ron Anderson.
“You don’t tell Ron Anderson what to do. He’s been doing it for 40 years. “I got told, ‘Pack your bags.’ I don’t mind traveling. I like to move around.”
The Gulfstream Park schedule in March includes a massive March 1 program with nine stakes, including the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes for 3-year-olds; and a blockbuster March 29 program of 10 stakes led by the Grade 1 Florida Derby, a $1 million race for 3-year-olds.
Later in the spring, Dettori will be based at Keeneland in an effort to secure a mount in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3. The Dubai trip will focus on the Dubai World Cup program on April 5. Dettori has ridden the Kentucky Derby twice, most recently finishing 16th last year on Society Man.
A three-time champion jockey in Britain, Dettori, 54, canceled plans to retire in 2023 and instead moved from Britain to the United States.
Last year, Dettori rode at Santa Anita through the winter, and was based in Kentucky in the spring before riding in New York in the summer and early fall. Last summer at Saratoga, Dettori had 5 wins from 49 mounts, including the Grade 2 Ballston Spa Stakes in his first year of riding at the famous upstate New York track.
“I did really well last year in Saratoga,” Dettori said. “I had a good base with the trainers. We can hopefully do better this year.”
The decision to ride at Saratoga this year delays a career goal of spending the same part of the year at Del Mar, near San Diego. Dettori has four career wins at Del Mar, all last November. Dettori rode at Del Mar during Breeders’ Cup weekends in 2017, 2021 and last year, and was active at the final weekend of the track’s autumn meeting last year, riding a winner on Nov. 30.
“I’d love to one day experience Del Mar in the summer and the big races,” he said.
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