'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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- 'You can see why people end up struggling - when you're trying to pay the electric bill, losing one ride can be massive'
- 'I've never paid six figures for a horse and never will - I learned pretty quickly you're only one phone call away from f*** all'
- 'I’ve trained some fabulous horses, worked with some excellent riders - maybe I have brought a little bit of talent to the table as well'
- ‘When you’re in the moment and you’re starved, you’re ready to explode - everything built up and I just lost my s**t’
- 'He must have his breakfast earlier than Willie does' - Patrick Mullins goes behind enemy lines at Gordon Elliott's yard