Cumani: He had will to win

For all the success Frankie Dettori has enjoyed in the royal blue silks of Godolphin and for his current employers Al Shaqab Racing, there is one trainer he will be ever thankful to for helping him on his way to stardom and achieving the status he

While now able to celebrate joining an elite list of jockeys to have ridden 3,000 domestic winners, it is a milestone that would not have been reached had it not been for the support of fellow Italian Luca Cumani upon his arrival on British shores back in the mid 1980s as a then unknown teenager.

After providing the Milan-born rider with his first British winner Lizzy Hare at Goodwood back in 1987, the pair, during a fruitful spell in the early 1990s, enjoyed many notable big-race successes, both at home and abroad.

There was the victory of Markofdistinction in the QEII Stakes at Ascot in1990, a win which provided Dettori with his first Group One success, and one that was to be doubled later that day by the victory of Shamshir in the Fillies’ Mile, along with the success of Second Set in the 1991 Sussex Stakes to name just a few of those highlights.

While their association on the track may no longer be what it once was, the master of Bedford House Stables admires the most recent achievement made by his fellow countryman.

Cumani said: “I think it is a great achievement. He has been a tremendous success throughout his career and I am pleased to have had him start his career in England with me.

“His father rode for my father and he said to Frankie come to England. He was a bit wild, but I think we put him straight.

“We’ve been friends ever since and he has been the most popular jockey for the past 20 years and hopefully he will be for another 10 years.

“We had a great double with Markofdistinction winning the QEII …

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