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It has been an exhilarating, glorious and sometimes bumpy ride, yet now, it appears Frankie Dettori's decision is final. The most celebrated jockey of the past 40 years will effectively enter retirement after the main card at the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar this Saturday, when he will have three chances to add a farewell top-tier victory to nearly 300 on his record already. Racing may not see a career quite like it again.

An Iconic Figure

Alongside racing great Lester Piggott and maybe John McCririck in the last half-century, “Frankie” registers with pretty much everyone, no surname required. The public knows who he is, even if they have absolutely no interest in what he does. In today's world which has become fragmented by social media and the internet, Dettori may well be the last racing figure who will ever experience such immediate brand recognition among a wide segment of Britain's people.

Dettori’s lifetime in the sport, in fact, goes back to an era when the show A Question Of Sport regularly pulled in more than 10 million viewers, and a three-year stint as a team leader was sufficient to establish him as the bubbly, irrepressible face of racing. His final year on the program came in 2004, which was also the time when he secured the top jockey award for a third and last occasion. As far as many in the UK, though, he has probably been the champion for many seasons after that.

A Hard-Won Celebrity

It is, in many respects, a hard-won celebrity, a double-edged reward for incidents both on and off the track that have repeatedly pushed Dettori into the headlines, since that memorable day at Ascot in 1996 when he defied odds of 25,000-1 to ride all seven winners on the card.

Back in June 2000, he was pulled 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 winner in 2007, that too was front-page news.

While everyone admires a champion, they frequently adore an imperfect hero and a return all the more. A half-year suspension following a positive drug test for cocaine would have been the end of many riders in their forties, plenty of time for owners and trainers to seek a younger replacement. For Dettori, however, his 2012 suspension was a bridge to a renewed association with John Gosden in Newmarket, and a new series of winners and classic victors, such as Enable, Golden Horn and Stradivarius.

Public Highs and Lows

The celebrated successes and setbacks have been a crucial element of his narrative, up to and including the embarrassing confession this past March that he was filing for bankruptcy after a prolonged dispute with tax authorities regarding unpaid taxes, a situation that he attempted, 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 absent Dettori’s immense, once-in-a-generation skill, there would have been no narrative whatsoever.

Natural Ability

It was clear from the start as a teenage apprentice that there was an instinctive rapport with the horses whenever Dettori was in the saddle.

Horses ran for him, and improved for him. Back in 1990, he became the first teen since Piggott to achieve 100 wins in one season, and also announced his emergence at the highest level with a Group One double at Ascot, on the same card that he would dominate through unbeaten just six years later. His iconic flying dismount, copied from the American legend Angel Cordero Jr, was added to his routine in 1994, and the buzz from riding a big-race winner has never left him. Nor has the gift of knowing, with something akin to foresight, where to sit, when to strike and where the gaps will emerge.

The Future Ahead

But what now for the recognizable figure of British racing? It won't be simple to finally let go, whether or not Dettori pursues his expressed wish to take “a few rides in South America, something that I’ve always wanted to experience”. It is not, after all, an ambition that he had mentioned previously.

However, the disastrous choice to follow tax guidance that led to his dispute with HMRC means that Dettori will not end his career with enough money saved up to relax and take it easy.

New Role and Opportunities

He has been confirmed in a new role as a “global ambassador” with the soccer agent Kia Joorabchian's growing Amo Racing enterprise. Dettori told racing presenter Matt Chapman last Friday this was the main reason for his exit now, along with the chance to conclude at the Breeders’ Cup. “These opportunities are rare, frequently. I appreciate the structure – it's a youthful team with huge goals,” explained the jockey.

Joorabchian personally, was gushing in his praise 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, Messis and Pelé and similar figures, Frankie is that for horse racing. When visiting Royal Ascot, you notice a statue, you know that he’s made a big impact countless lives worldwide.

“He’s not here|“He isn't here} to amuse audiences, he's here to work and he will 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.”

Television reality shows is another possibility, though previous appearances on Celebrity Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity have tended to reveal a more somber aspect to Dettori’s character, beneath the cheerful public image. In both programs, he was an early exit of the public vote.

It's possible that Dettori himself does not really know what he will do and how to spend his time after his riding career are over. And for another 24 hours at least, he remains a top-level professional jockey, focused on three mounts at one of the most prestigious and glamorous events in the calendar.

The Final Ride

A five-year-old filly named Argine will be his final Grade One mount in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, the identical event where he achieved his initial Breeders’ Cup win back in 1994. Her performance in Japan in Japan suggests that she has something to improve to compete, yet few jockeys historically have risen to an occasion like Frankie Dettori.

For one final time, is it time for Frankie?