Frankie Dettori: ‘We came here to win’

In tonight’s Markel Champions Challenge in aid of the Injured Jockeys Fund at Olympia, the team of Flat jockeys were victorious over their Jump racing rivals.

Riding borrowed horses, the teams had to complete a course of showjumps, jumping as a relay. The Flat jockeys went first, finishing on a time of 247.86sec to put the pressure on the Jump jockeys.

While the National Hunt team was no stranger to clearing fences at speed, the atmosphere got to a couple of the horses, with Sam Twiston-Davies having a refusal and Tom Scudamore’s horse standing on end instead of setting off round the course.

With the clock ticking, it was clear that the Flat jockeys’ team (Frankie Dettori, Jim Crowley, Adam Kirby, Jamie Spencer and Bridget Andrews) had taken the win.

We spoke to Frankie Dettori following the victory to find out what it meant to win at Olympia, which top showjumper he’d trained with, and how he called in a favour when it came to borrowing a horse…