‘No strength to scream or cry’: Frankie Dettori recalls his horrifying plane crash

Goodwood Cup 2020: Frankie Dettori on Stradivarius win

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Frankie Dettori has had a highly decorated career. Among his long list of achievements is claiming Champion Jockey on three occasions and riding the winners of more than 500 Group races. His life has also been full of drama and the horse racing legend has documented the highs and lows in new autobiography, Leap Of Faith.

One of the most traumatic moments that leapt out of the book was his plane crash 20 years ago.

Speaking on ITV’s This Morning to promote this new book, the champ recalled that horrifying ordeal.

“Now it’s happened 20 years ago I can talk about. You try to forget about that kind of trauma.

“I lost my pilot. I was lucky when my friend dragged me out of the wreckage.”

Describing the moment of collision, the jockey said he had no time to “scream or cry”.

“I just had six-months-old child and life was going so great.”

Frankie describes the palpable moment he confronted death.

“I was disappointed that god was going to take me and I was not ready for it.”

Remarkably, Frankie was left relatively unscathed by the crash, which took place in Newmarket.

His future agent Ray Cochrane, who suffered minor burns, saved his life by pulling him from the wreckage through the plane’s luggage compartment.

The jockey fractured his right ankle and thumb.

The star made a superhuman recovery: “I was back racing two months after the crash, notching up a couple of winners at Newmarket,” he wrote in his new autobiography.

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