‘Officials were tipped off that Frankie Dettori had taken banned drug’

 
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Peter Allen|Maxine Frith14 November 2012

French authorities were “tipped off” that jockey Frankie Dettori had taken a banned substance and shocked him when they demanded he take a drugs test, it emerged today.

The rider faces a six-month worldwide ban if found guilty when he appears before the notoriously uncompromising medical committee of France Galop in Paris next week.

Dettori’s lawyer confirmed he had tested positive for a banned substance, widely reported as cocaine, after competing in four races at the Longchamp course in Paris in September.

The jockey, 41, raced in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at the same course last month but has pulled out of this month’s Japan Cup, which he has won three times.

According to a well-placed racing source in Paris, Dettori “was taken by surprise by the test, following a tip-off from a third party”.

The source said: “Mr Dettori was completely shocked by the test which came out of the blue, but carried on racing anyway. Mr Dettori and his team were informed of the results of the test early, and he was able to get away on holiday before it all became public.”

Dettori is believed to be in Los Angeles. He lives with his wife Catherine and their five children in a village near Newmarket in Suffolk.

There was no reply at the large gated property today, but a woman, who took children’s clothes from a black Mercedes-Benz people carrier with a personalised numberplate which was parked in the drive, said: “They are not here at the moment and I don’t know when they will be back. But life for the rest of the family goes on as normal and Mrs Dettori is supporting her husband.”

Christopher Stewart-Moore, Dettori’s solicitor, said: “As a consequence of a positive test at Longchamp on September 16, 2012, Lanfranco Dettori will be the subject of an inquiry by the medical committee of France Galop.”

France Galop has refused to issue a statement before the hearing, which is set for an unspecified day next week.

Racing experts said any ban would be recognised and enforced in other countries around the world. The flamboyant jockey, known for his flying dismounts, became a global star after his “magnificent seven” wins at Ascot in 1996 — when he won all the races on that day’s card — and has won more than 500 races in his career.

He parted company with racing stable Godolphin last month after an 18-year relationship.

Dettori received a police caution for cocaine possession in 1993, when he was 22, but later said that drug abuse was now in his past.

“I was a stupid, cocky, arrogant kid,” he was quoted as telling one reporter in 2010, when asked about the incident. “I was riding, I was winning, I was a kid who’d gone from earning £12 a week to getting big money. Too much money.”

In a BBC Newsnight programme, he admitted taking diuretic drugs to keep his weight down, before the Jockey Club outlawed them in 1998.

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