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8 July 2005
Frankie Dettori's "Magnificent
Seven"
On an extraordinary day
the popular jockey went through the card - and sent the
bookies running for cover.
Pint-sized jockey Frankie
Dettori has long been a favourite of UK
online casinos
fans and the British public, what with his natty dress sense
and broad Italian accent, his entertaining appearances on A
Question of Sport and his famous flying
dismounts.
But it was on September
28, 1996, that Dettori pulled off the extraordinary feat for
which for which he will always be remembered. Lucky punters
will always thank him, and the bookies will never forgive
him.
For at Ascot on that
famous day, Dettori rode in and won all seven races on the
card.
It was one of the most
memorable moments in racing history, try as the bookies may
to forget it ever happened. The accumulated odds on Dettori
pulling off all seven winners came to an astronomical 25,091
to 1.
Bookies'
disaster
It's now estimated that
Dettori's feat cost the betting industry over
£30million. Some independent betting shops were ruined,
and some racecourse bookies were still paying off their
debts years later.
It was "the worst day in
bookmaking history," said William
Hill's
spokesperson David Hood at the time. "Our managers will be
settling bets until midnight. The fifth winner was
expensive, the sixth dismal, and after the seventh, it was
time to put the lights out."
Said another bookie: "It's
a disaster. We don't expect any sympathy but it's the worst
day's business we've done since Lester Piggott was in his
heyday and winning the Derby ever year."
Ladbrokes alone lost
£10million. "The punishment was so bad you could almost
see the blood on the rails in the betting ring," said
spokesperson Mike Dillon.
Lucky
punter
One lucky punter was
Darren Yates, a 30-year-old self-employed builder, who won a
total of £550,823.54 from an outlay of just
£69.76, including tax, on a 50p Super Heinz and a
£2 each-way accumulator. He placed the bet n a William
Hill Shop in Morecambe. Another punter won a similar amount
with a £10 each-way accumulator that they'd casually
walked in off the street to place in a local
Ladbroke's.
"To scoop more than half a
million is beyond any punter's wildest dreams and better
than winning the lottery," said Yates. He spent 10,000
guineas on his own racehorse, which unsurprisingly he called
Seventh Heaven. It has yet to win a race.
Five, six,
seven…
Dettori's last three year
mounts of the day were all driven to become favourites by
the weight of money backing the earlier winners and
accumulating as Dettori strung his winners
together.
"I'm just warming up. Is
there any more racing?" cracked Dettori after his seventh
victorious flying dismount of the day. "This is everybody's
dream. God was on my side."
On December 29, 2000,
Dettori was awarded an honorary MBE. He won the English
jockey's championship in 2004.
DETTORI'S WINNERS
Cumberland Lodge Stakes:
Wall Street 2-1
Racal Diadem Stakes:
Diffident 12-1
Queen Elizabeth II Stakes:
Mark of Esteem 100-30
Tote Festival Handicap:
Decorated Hero 7-1
Rosemary Related Stakes:
Fatefully 7-4
Blue Seal Stakes:
Lochangel 5-4
The Gordon Karter
Handicap: Fujiyama Crest 2-1
Total accumulator odds:
25,095-1
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