Jockey Frankie Dettori fears drugs shame may haunt him forever

Shamed jockey Frankie Dettori fears his reputation may never recover after he failed a drugs test and was given a six-month ban.

• Jockey tested positive for banned substance at Longchamp meeting in Paris last September.

• Test is thought to indicated cocaine in his system.

Dettori, 41, has reportedly been hiding due to the shame and he fears his name will always be blackened by the test results.

“I’ve been in hiding since it happened because of the shame factor,” Dettori told the Daily Star. “It’s not very pleasant.

“People will always remember it. Now when they look at me they won’t think of the things I have done for racing in the past 20 years, they’ll just think, ‘He’s the guy who got caught with drugs’.

“But you can’t change the past and you’ve just got to move on.”

The jockey will not be elligible to compete again until May 19, after he was handed the suspension yesterday by French racing authority France Galop.

Shocked

The test results have shocked the world of racing as the Italian is one of the biggest names in the sport.

Racing authorities worldwide, such as the British Horseracing Authority, are expected to follow suit regarding the ban and Dettori’s next important date is when he will be summoned to the headquarters of France Galop to be re-tested towards the end of April.

Dettori’s suspension was backdated, as he had already been prevented from riding in France since November 20 when an independent medical commission spoke to him via a conference call and passed the file on to a disciplinary panel of the stewards at France Galop.