'The Frankie you get on Monday is not the same one you get on Saturday' INTERVIEW In the first of a two-part interview, Frankie Dettori tells James Willoughby why his decision to focus on the big occasions will help to prolong his career - and that he wants to go on riding for another ten years.

Byline: James Willoughby 

THE filly in front has relaxed into the beat of her stride. She is clicking off furlongs down the back in easy fractions.

She dips her shoulder to counter the force of the home turn, then levels out again deftly as the corner unwinds. Now she is beginning to open out.

Her jockey is riding the others to sleep. He thrusts out his arms, feeds her the reins. She answers the call for one more run.

Here comes the line. Perfection. Frankie Dettori and Folk Opera have just won the EUR1m EP Taylor Stakes at Woodbine.

Nobody is close to Dettori as an athlete on horseback.

Nobody can sublimate the awkward physicality of riding racehorses like him.

His riding is living proof of the natural link between aesthetics and functionality - that if something looks good to the eye, it tends to be mechanically efficient. And Dettori looks very good.

Juxtaposed with the smooth lines of his riding has been the bumpy road of his life. Before the random act of tragedy which was the air crash of 2000, Dettori made self-confessed mistakes as he matured.

Not for Dettori is the Fallon-like visceral tendency for self-inflicted pain; that of the tortured soul trying to drive out the devil within.

No, Dettori's brand of waywardness is derived from an extremely spirited nature, a kind of giddiness to explore all possibilities without the necessary caution.

Dettori is 38 in December. He has taken fewer rides and ridden fewer winners in Britain during 2008 than in any season since he was an apprentice, save for the ill-starred year of 2000.

What is the reason for this selective policy? Is it evidence of a dimming passion for the sport?

"This is my view," says Dettori. "When you have a job like mine at Godolphin, your focus as a professional should switch from the days when you were busting your tail chasing the championship.

"There's no point wasting all your energy on minor events, just for the sake of proving to people you're going to the races. I've gone beyond that. What's important to me is to ride winners for Godolphin, for my stable, for my team.

"It's a different sport now. We're like America - nearly 365 days a year - and the demands on a jockey are greater: Sunday racing, night racing, international racing. Nobody has really stopped to think of the way we should be carrying on.

"I've woken up to looking after my mental health at this stage of my life. This is very important when you ride racehorses. If you have a positive mind and a happy mind, you can get results.

"But there's more to it than that. I'll be honest: it just doesn't make me tick any more going to the smaller courses for insignificant races. A lot of jockeys have to be slaves to their jobs.

Their agent is pushing them to the races, they're feeling guilty for letting down a friend, whatever. I'm lucky to be in a different position."

The burning question is this: does relative inactivity reduce his sharpness? Every athlete needs repetitions to groove his technique and preserve his muscle memory. Why should Dettori be different?

He is adamant on this point. "Look, I will be the first to say this: the Frankie Dettori you get on Monday is not the same one you get on Saturday, but he's still pretty good. It's only human nature, the same for all sportsmen. The big games are the ones which get the best out of you.

"I'm certain that keeping myself fresh of mind and body is actually an advantage for the big days at this stage of my career. I'm making sure not to be burned out by July because most of the big races are after that. This way, I will have an extended career."

Dettori's reduced regimen may prove a stencil for leading jockeys in the future. Perhaps it already should. Either way, his decision to adopt the policy did not come from any kind of new-age epiphany, but the events of June 1, 2000.

A near-death experience such as the one Dettori survived on the Devil's Dyke has a negative effect on the mental wellbeing of anyone. In his case, it left him feeling empty and bemused for the next two years, something perhaps akin to the established syndrome of survivor guilt.

THE description of his feelings during this period is especially moving. "For two or three years after the crash, I was lost. I never knew what the hell was wrong with me every day, in everything I was doing.

"I didn't know where to find peace. I didn't know if I wanted to make my focus being a father or being a jockey. I thought I would go and be champion again, make that my drive. But I couldn't find peace in that, or anything else for that matter.

"Whatever it was, I was doing it but not living it. My soul wasn't happy, I suppose . . . I don't know . . . it was all part of the trauma of what happened. Life for me was like being in an empty room looking for an exit that was never there."

Where had Dettori got this last idiom from? Is it merely a philosophical rationalisation, or something more macabre? Could it have come from a recurring image or a persistent nightmare?

The phrase itself is haunting, even if you haven't experienced the trauma which caused it.

He paused. "Anyway, after two years, I finally grew out of it. Now I feel OK, feel great. When I go racing, I'm happy; when I play with the kids, I'm happy. I just can't tell you what that means compared to where I was.

"I was lost. For the first two to three years afterwards, going through anything was a trauma. It took me a long, long time to pass through that, but from 2002 onwards, I started to get myself back together.

"I started to see where I wanted my riding to go. My experience of the crash, dreadful though it was, helped me to achieve a better balance for my life."

Dettori says his joy for life has returned to its previous levels, but admits that so have his mercurial mood swings.

"If you ask people around me, including my wife, she will tell you I can be sunshine and rain, all within an hour. I don't know I'm doing it, but that's the way I am. You can't see dirt on yourself, but that's what people say.

"I'll never be level. I have a Latin nature. I have five children and have been in my job now for 14 years, so that enforces a certain kind of stability. But I haven't got my slippers and pipe yet. I'm just not that kind of person."

DETTORI ON . . .

Family life

"I don't know whether I'm as good a father as I could be or not. In this job you miss the school play, the sports day, you miss a lot. At least I see my kids in the morning, and in the evening for an hour.

"We spend a month in Dubai and Christmas and New Year together, but I just haven't got time to play football in the garden with them on Sunday, I'm afraid, because I might be at Deauville or somewhere.

"I'm not saying I'm the perfect father; he would do a whole lot more. But I'm there.

Sometimes it might be only ten minutes, but I'm always there for them. And I always will be.

"Catherine, she's great. She's a natural mother and looks after the family brilliantly. I'm the sixth child in the house sometimes, but she looks after us tirelessly and endlessly. Our children always seem so happy and content, and that's what you're trying to achieve."

Demands of the international calendar

"Last weekend I got on the plane to Canada to ride Folk Opera and Doctor Dino, then flew back to Longchamp for the Sunday to ride in five Group 1s.

You walk into the paddock at Longchamp and feel the buzz, I mean it's great.

"But you can keep up the adrenaline only so much.

Including Newmarket on Friday, I'd ridden in nine Group 1s in three days, but then it stops and the fatigue jumps on you all at once.

"On Monday I had to go to Pontefract. I had an awful journey up there and rode a winner over two miles, two furlongs for Godolphin. When I got back in, I was physically knackered, just worn out. So I thought it was the safest thing not to press on that day."

The future

"I have a plan for the future. I have five kids at private school and they cost a lot. As healthy as I am now, I'm going to carry on. For ten more years, perhaps. It's within reach.

"The way I'm pacing myself now, I know that I can do it. And my policy to be more selective is important. If you ride 400 horses a year instead of 800, you halve your chance of getting injured.

"Physically, I feel just as good. I'm not 27 any more, but luckily I have few aches and pains. It hurts a bit more when you fall off, but apart from that I'm happy."

69 Dettori's lowest tally of wins in Britain (2002) since apprenticeship

58 Dettori's wins this season

CAPTION(S):

Frankie Dettori performs his flying dismount (left) and with his wife Catherine (right)