The Magnificent Seven

It was, said The Times, the equivalent of a racing driver winning every Grand Prix, or a golfer scoring straight birdies in the final round of the Open to finish with a hole in one. No-one would have believed it could happen but, on Saturday 28 September 1996, at Ascot racecourse, the impossible did. Frankie Dettori won every single race on the card: a Magnificent Seven. Now, to mark the fifth anniversary of that extraordinary day, Graham Sharpe tells the full story of how history was made. For this is a tale of losing as well as winning - on a comparably epic scale. Dettori's seven wins cost Britain's bookmakers 40 million pounds. For them it was more like the Wall Street Crash. Sharpe should know: his firm. William Hill, presented one lucky punter alone with a cheque for more than half a million pounds. The Magnificent Seven, therefore, follows,that day from its innocuous beginnings, hour by hour, race by race, through to its unbelievable climax when Fujiyama Crest just held on by a head to win the 5.30 at 2-1.
There is the amateur footballer in Lancashire who, to his wife's disapproval, put 69 pounds on Frankie to win every race - and the cleaner from Lincolnshire who passed up the vital extra 50p for an accumulator bet as just too extravagant. There is the on-course bookie who at the last minute escaped ruin by going to Worcester rather than Ascot, another who chose Ascot and finished up having to sell his house, and the inside story of how, as events unfolded, the big betting chains took desperate precautions to avoid the same fate themselves. There are recollections by all racing's major figures, from television's Peter O'Sullevan, John Francome and Clare Balding to pundits and personalities like John McCririck and Barry 'the Bismarck' Dennis. And above all there is the charismatic figure of Frankie Dettori himself, 'the first rock 'n' roll jockey', who the night before had confessed to his fiancee 'a bad feeling about Saturday' - and ended the next day a superstar. A story of prodigious sporting achievement, an equally prodigious betting heist, and a day that changed many people's lives for ever, The Magnificent Seven is an enthralling and unique sports book.