The Magnificent Seven Where are they now?Ī three-year-old when winning the Cumberland Lodge Stakes, he is the only one of the seven not still alive. He does not need anniversaries to remind him what happened that day. Fred Done flashed a message on to his betting shop screens: 'Reward, dead or alive: good-looking Italian kid, last seen in Ascot area.'Īt the precise moment when Fujiyama Crest passed the post, the clock stopped in a north London betting shop. The Boltons were due £900,000, but were not too despondent, having initially persuaded themselves that they had won only £300,000. Ladbrokes had inoculated themselves against such unpredictable dramas with a maximum payout of £500,000. 'The first bet I took was a pound,' he said. Gary Wiltshire went on to Milton Keynes greyhounds facing liabilities of £800,000. 'What a great achievement.' Dennis collapsed into a chair, sobbing.Īnd he had got away lightly, compared with some.

'Good day?' Dennis told her Dettori had ridden all seven winners. When he got home, his wife greeted him cheerily. Before dusk, Dettori would spin them faster and faster round his carousel, seemingly out of control, pivoting wildly round the molten fulcrum of his own instincts.ĭennis drove home in silence, his staff too frightened to speak. For many others to whom the day became unforgettable, 28 September, 1996 dawned with no more promise or interest than a thousand other Saturdays. Never mind the pyramid of professional stories beneath each of those seven pinnacles - the years of patience and preparation vindicated by each horse that day. When Dettori won all seven races on one of the most competitive cards of the year, however, it was the most intense experience not only in his own life, but many others, too. Anyone who witnessed such a feat would marvel with a sense of communal privilege. Imagine some other unfathomable landmark: Tiger Woods, say, shooting 18 consecutive birdies. However briefly he seduced outsiders into his sport, on that heady day at Ascot 10 years ago, Frankie Dettori gave them a lasting lesson in its least ephemeral qualities.

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