Frankie fights back the tears after racegoers show support for racing's top star

Their parting has been presented as a sabbatical, yet less than an hour after sunrise on the first full day of their conscious uncoupling, Frankie Dettori and the Gosdens were visibly heading in opposite directions.

At 5.40am, as a council employee watered hanging baskets on Newmarket High Street, Dettori drove past Greggs, Caffe Nero and Starbucks. Seconds later, with the world's most famous jockey travelling towards the clock tower and then Moulton Paddocks, a horsebox from Clarehaven Stables swept past Dettori's BMW. One of the passengers, Free Wind, was last seen winning Doncaster's Park Hill Stakes under her trainers' then number-one jockey. When she reappears in the Lancashire Oaks, someone else will do the steering.

John Gosden was openly critical of Dettori's riding at Royal Ascot. There was, however, nothing wrong with the great rider's timing this Saturday morning. His appearance at Charlie Appleby's base was pre-planned but it could hardly have been more opportune.