FRANKIE DETTORI’S first Kentucky Derby race in 24 years will be against a 40-1 outsider.
The world’s most famous jockey is determined to win America’s biggest race and has decided against retiring to compete at Churchill Downs.
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Dettori has enjoyed enormous success over the years with controversial American trainer Bob Baffert.
But he remains excluded from the Churchill Downs racetrack in Kentucky after initially being banned for two years when 2021 Derby winner Medina Spirit failed a post-race drug test.
It means Dettori – who finished sixth in the 2000 China Visit Derby – has had to look elsewhere and was yesterday confirmed for the race in the 40-1 Society Man.
The Danny Gargan-trained outsider was last seen finishing second in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at odds of 107-1.
Society Man has won one of his five races and looks to be Gargan’s second string in the £4m race, with the trainer also saddling Dornoch 18-1.
The Kentucky Derby will be run on Saturday, May 4 – the same day as the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, a race Dettori has won four times, including last year at the Chaldean.
Gargan said: “I’m excited to have Frankie, he’s riding really well.
“I know it’s a race he wants to run and a race he wants to win.”
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Society Man and Dornoch have been training at Churchill Downs and have their final training sessions scheduled for Saturday.
Dettori’s former British rival Ben Curtis will be alongside him in the ‘Run for the Roses’.
Former champion all-weather jockey Curtis’ earnings have soared “more than expected” since he moved to the United States late last year.
With prize money of almost £5,000 per race, he recently made the move permanent and was rewarded with a ride on Honor Marie.
At 20-1, the David Whitworth Beckman-trained horse has half the odds of the Dettori runner.
Curtis said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity and on a horse I think could show up brilliantly that day.”
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