Football finance expert Rob Wilson feels racing can bounce back from Dettori retirement despite absence of next mega star

Speaking to BoyleSports, Football Finance expert at Sheffield Business School, Rob Wilson, believes the economic impact of Dettori’s retirement will not harm the sport because he had played such a crucial role in helping to grow it in the first place.

Dettori will be riding in his final Glorious Goodwood next week and has two big chances in the two Group 1 races on the card - the Nassau Stakes and the Sussex Stakes, a race Dettori has won five times.

The superstar jockey was very fond of Newbury as well, winning the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at the Berkshire track five times, most recently in 2021 on Palace Pier behind closed doors during the first Covid lockdown.

The horse racing industry will be searching for another jockey with the global profile of Frankie Dettori.

Dettori is an iconic athlete who has had a following that made people interested in the sport, we’ve had successive retirements from him and he’s kept coming back. Horse racing as a sport has increased in popularity over the last 20 to 25 years, and it’s become increasingly popular over the last 10 years with the major tournaments and race meetings around the UK.

The interesting comparison with Tiger Woods and Roger Federer is that in both those cases, there was an upcoming athlete or group of athletes coming through to pick up the mantle. In tennis you had Djokovic, Nadal and to a lesser extent Andy Murray. With Woods, you go down the list and see Mickleson and Rory McIlroy. The wave of change is not significant.

I’m not an expert in horse racing, but there isn’t a jockey I see that has the same profile and global appeal that he does. So the horse racing industry will be searching for one.

But I think given the scale of popularity in the last decade or so, I don’t think there will be an economic impact of him leaving other than his own wages and prize money.

You have to balance out the benefits he bought the sport in the first place to the downsides of him leaving.

With Frankie Dettori, you also have to balance out the benefits he brought to the sport against and the downsides of him leaving too. People always become personalities, and they become interesting to watch and interview but ultimately people are there to make money through gambling.

Dettori’s absence may level up the playing field

Your regular horse-goers who follow the horses he rides on may change their behaviour, but generally speaking racegoers will be going for the thrill of the race and looking to back winners.

It may even level up the playing field a bit. Historically, the best horse trainers want the best jockeys, although it has been a mixed picture in the last few years.

Sports tend to recover after the retirement of its iconic stars

Usain Bolt leaving athletics is an example of a retirement having an economic impact on the sport. Michael Phelps in swimming is another. We’re talking about athletes who become big media personalities, and that is the driver. But that benefits them and the knock-on impact is the sport.

Ultimately, the sports tend to recover. So even in lesser sports, you think of Martin Johnson and Jonny Wilkinson retiring from rugby. It’s carried on, similar with cricket. All these sports tend to continue without these individual superstars.

Wilson was speaking to BoyleSports, who offer the latest horse racing odds ahead of the Goodwood Festival.