Newmarket: Frankie Dettori items from 40-year racing career sell for thousands

A collection of jockey Frankie Dettori's awards and riding gear has sold for tens of thousands of pounds.

Dettori, who lives near Newmarket in Suffolk, put 126 items up for auction ahead of his retirement, including jockey scales, a saddle and boots.

Among them was the trophy from his Epsom Oaks win in June, which sold for £5,000 to a UK buyer.

The 52-year-old jockey plans to retire after Ascot in October and is preparing to move house.

Dettori, who had more than 4,000 wins in a career that started in the 1980s, put items including trophies and racing silks up for auction in order to "scale down" the family home, where he has lived for nearly 40 years.

The total amount raised has not been disclosed but a pair of signed racing boots from a race in Saudi Arabia sold for £2,800 and a signed racing saddle used by Dettori at Epsom, raised £1,400.

A set of royal blue ex-Godolphin silks went for £4,600 to a buyer from Japan and a trophy from a 37th race meeting from HH Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani from Qatar sold for £3,200.

Dettori's signed jockey weighing scales, given to him by champion American jockey Steve Cauthen and which Dettori claims he had been "jumping on and off for over 30 years", reached £550.

Before the sale, the jockey said: "Newmarket's been my life, [but] we're scaling down."

"We didn't realise how much accumulated in so many years," he said.

Harriet Lusty, from Cheffins auctioneers, said the online auction attracted "buyers from the world over" with bidders from Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, the USA and Japan.

The sale took place over a two-week period with some of the proceeds going to the charity Direct Aid For Africa.

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