Go, Frankie Dettori!

We are very proud of the cover photograph for Issue 24 of our magazine, The World of Personal Number Plates. Our photographer, Stan Thompson, has done us proud with a truly exclusive shot of the great Frankie Dettori. It’s not every day you get to see one of the country’s greatest jockeys riding a zebra!

We met Frankie at his Newmarket home where we delivered the number plates for his new personal registration, 60 FD
(‘Go, Frankie Dettori!’).

“I used to have 777 LEO,” Frankie says. “My childhood dream was to have a Ferrari. I always said if I got to 30 and I had enough money I would get one. What eventually happened was that I was in a plane crash and I nearly died at 29. And this was when we’d just had a little boy. I thought ‘what the heck!’ and so straight after the hospital, when I was feeling well again, I went to the shop and I got myself a Ferrari. I thought I might as well get a number plate to go with it. Seven is my lucky number, and Leo is my son’s name so I got 777 LEO.”

Frankie’s wife Catherine, also known as ‘Cat’, has her own personal registration numbers: Y666 CAT on her car, and last year she bought 6 CRD for her horsebox.

“Yes, Cat got that other one, and it slipped under the radar. I didn’t know she bought that until I got home,” says Frankie. “I said, well that’s it, that’s your birthday present gone! I think she likes number plates more than I do, to be honest with you, and I think she probably wanted the 60 FD more than I did, because my other one I put my son’s name on it, I wasn’t as bothered about mine.

“We’ve got a few [number plates] now, a bit of a collection. The next one I will have to get will be for my daughter, Mia. That’s a perfect name for a number plate - M. I. A. It should be easy to find for Mia, when she is a bit older, but Ella, Tallulah and Rocco will be more complicated. Maybe have to get initials like Cat does.”

Frankie still owns his 777 LEO registration, although the Ferrari for which he originally bought it is long gone.

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