Marquand: Dettori retirement will leave huge void for racing
As Frankie Dettori begins his long goodbye, a farewell tour before retirement from the saddle at the end of this year, the sport of racing will scratch its head and wonder just how it is going to fill the void.
Dettori has affected the brand like no other before him. He is known worldwide. The flamboyant Italian has achieved almost everything that can be achieved in the saddle.
Now at the age of 52, Dettori is almost done punching the clock and his weighing-room colleague Tom Marquand insists there will be no one who can do as much for the visibility of the sport.
“I don’t think anyone could fill the gap that Frankie is going to leave, because he is Frankie,” said Marquand.
“He is someone that won’t be replaced, not only because of his achievements but the way he goes about it as well – he’s Frankie, no one else is going to be Frankie. Anyone else can try, but they are not going to manage it.”
Marquand, 24, married fellow jockey Hollie Doyle in March last year. The pair, who met when pony racing, have been dubbed racing’s ‘Golden Couple’.
They shared the spoils behind William Buick in the Flat jockeys’ championship last term, each riding 91 winners between the Guineas meeting and Champions Day. Both had a trio of Group One victories.
The fact that Hollie and Tom are both extremely good at their jobs and are highly personable, professional and generous with their time, makes them a marketing dream.
Becoming A-list racing celebrities was never part of the plan. Marquand says he is not yet used to it, much less feels like he deserves it.
“We have never really gone out of our way to do anything,” he said.
“We have never really chased it. We recognise the sport needs promoting and if we are doing well, it is our job to go alongside riding and we recognise that. It is not something we view as we can boost our career by doing it. It is part of the job.”
The pair went down a storm when competing against each other in Japan recently.
“It is one of the places that everyone in racing should try to visit,” he adds. “It is an amazing country and we’d both go back in a heartbeat.”
Hollie is facing a spell on the sidelines, having broken her left elbow in a fall at Wolverhampton, so Tom is preparing to fly solo to Australia, a trip that could end up being a near three-month stay.
He rode eight winners when last in New South Wales in 2021, which included partnering the now-retired Addeybb to victory in the Group One Queen Elizabeth Stakes for a second time.
Marquand will team up with trainer William Haggas, who will send four horses to the six-week Sydney Autumn Carnival, which features 18 Group One contests worth over £22million.
Group Two winners Dubai Honour and Purplepay will join handicappers Earl Of Tyrone and Protagonist, both owned by Melbourne Cup-winning syndicate Australian Bloodstock. He is also expected to get plenty of rides from local trainers.
However, Marquand, who has ridden 42 winners in total on his last three visits to Sydney, admits the trip, which sees him have his first rides on February 4, could be emotionally challenging.
“We know how lucky we are to get opportunities like going to Hong Kong and Japan together, because they so hard to come by,” he said.
“Hollie and I compete as individuals. It is an interesting dynamic.
“I’d be one of the most competitive people ever and Hollie would be the same – you pick up a tennis racket and you’d want to win a game of tennis, pick up a golf club, you want to win a game of golf.
“Probably because it is so volatile in the racing world with your results – one day you might ride a treble or ride a St Leger winner then go to Wolverhampton the next day for six rides and don’t ride anything better than a 0-65 horse – that is what keeps you grounded.
“Between us, because we are both experiencing each other’s ups and downs as well, it evens it out even more.
“It helps the relationship. In reality, it has been quite hard sometimes.
“It is going to happen in a couple of weeks. I am going to want to go to Australia and if Hollie wasn’t injured, she’d be riding here – and having two months away is hard.
“I know other jockeys experience it, but they get their wife to get to come over for a week or month or something, whereas we don’t really get that unless it is like Japan, where we got to go together – and that is the first time that has ever happened for more than a few days.
“So, it does make it hard in some elements. I don’t know whether she will come, but it is one of those things.
“But if we ran our respective careers off each other, it wouldn’t work, because neither of us would be successful, so you have both got to go at it as individuals. We have managed to make it work.”
When Hollie’s injury heals, the sport’s dream team will once again be pitting their wits against each other on the track, worrying about who will do the washing up and ironing later.
“We don’t rib each other. Even in pony racing, it never really came into it,” adds Marquand.
“Ultimately we both want to win, but we are fully of the idea that if you are not going to win personally, you hope it is her and she is the same.
“Obviously, she would sooner beat me than finish second but not because it is me – it is because she wants to win and I’m the same.”
The couple will continue to push each other and support each other, and that could not make racing’s marketing bods any happier. Without Frankie, the show must go on.
