Talking Horses: freelance Frankie Dettori in danger of fading from view

There is a scrolling electronic billboard a few hundred metres from Brighton station, positioned to catch the eye of tens of thousands of day-trippers heading home from the beach, and an ad for next month’s Glorious Goodwood festival is currently on the rotation. Amid the scenes of partying racegoers, photo-finishes and the track’s breathtaking downland setting, just one current jockey gets the honour of a snapshot all to himself and it is, of course, the only one who needs no introduction. Frankie Dettori shifts tickets for the races like no one else can.

Unless his “sabbatical” from the John Gosden yard is more like a long weekend, however, Dettori’s chances at Glorious Goodwood will be more limited than anyone could have imagined just a few weeks ago. The great stayer Stradivarius, who could well be making the final appearance of his career in the Goodwood Cup, will presumably have a fresh pair of hands holding the reins, and so too will Inspiral, the one bright spot in an otherwise miserable Royal meeting for the jockey, if she heads down to Sussex for the Nassau Stakes.

Since there is no obvious ride for Dettori among the main contenders for the Sussex Stakes, it is possible, perhaps even likely, that the most famous big-race jockey of the last three decades will be struggling for a partner, never mind a winner, in the meeting’s three Group Ones. And while his newly restored freelance status will make him an obvious candidate for spares and second-strings, he will be competing for openings with a whole host of others, all of them younger and possibly hungrier too.

Dettori himself insisted on Saturday that he will ride on at least until the end of 2023, and possibly spend more time riding in major races overseas. He