'I was a tearaway but Barney put his arm around me and made me a better person'
David Jennings catches up with a legend before a special visit to Bellewstown
Frankie Dettori is riding at Bellewstown on Thursday. Now there is a sentence I never thought I would type. Racing's greatest showman will discover one of racing's best-kept secrets, hidden away on top of the hill of Crockafotha in County Meath, to honour the man who kept the greatest secret of all.
In a week when everybody wanted a piece of Dettori, craving anecdotes about the day he changed the face of racing forever – more about that later – he managed to squeeze in an interview via Zoom to chat about the one and only Barney Curley who helped change the face of Frankie forever.
"There were two sides to Barney, two men in the one man," he begins to tell me of the late legendary gambler who famously foiled the layers with the help of a phone box at Bellewstown back in 1975.
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Published on 28 September 2021inInterviews
Last updated 14:04, 28 September 2021
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- 'There was a moment of rage - but he's a magnificent horse and it suits me that he's passed under the radar'
- When Patrick Mullins met Jack Kennedy: 'You could say I've been lucky - they're just broken bones and they heal'
- Richard Hannon: 'When you're dead and buried the only things you're remembered by are your Classic winners'
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