Dettori taken to hospital after starting gate spill

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Champion jockey Frankie Dettori was taken to Jamaica Hospital on Thursday after being unseated from his mount Pretty Liza in the starting gate just prior to the start of the last race at Aqueduct.

Pretty Liza, among the favorites in the race and Dettori’s only mount on the card, reared in the gate and Dettori landed on his back. Initially, emergency medical technicians brought a stretcher to use to take Dettori off the turf course. But Dettori, 53, got up and walked over to the ambulance. He was then placed on a stretcher and transported to Jamaica for evaluation.

Dettori is a three-time champion jockey in Europe who has won nearly 300 Group or Grade 1 stakes races. He had planned to retire in 2023 but had such a good year both in Europe and the United States that he decided to ride in 2024 and moved his tack to the United States.

This year, Dettori has ridden 62 winners from 359 mounts, and those mounts have earned $10.69 million in purses. He has won 11 graded stakes this year, including the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap on Newgate and the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley on Beaute Cachee. His most recent stakes victory came in the Grade 3, $3.1 million Nashville Derby on Bellum Justum at Kentucky Downs.

Dettori is named on six horses on Friday’s Belmont at the Big A card and eight on Saturday’s program.

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