Under the skin of Frankie Dettori - the outwardly carefree superstar with a complex personality beneath the surface

It always looks such hard work being Frankie Dettori. It's the non-stop jollity that must take it out of you; the incessant smiling and the endless chatter; not to mention the flying dismounts, which surely play havoc with your joints when you get past 50.

It's all natural, he insists, and it doesn't seem to have aged him prematurely, but it's got to grind you down after a while, the expectation that you're going to lift every occasion and make up for all the other miserable so-and-sos with faces like slapped backsides. Perpetual happiness may have its rewards, but it can't be easy.

Surely, though, nobody can be that chipper all the time. There has to be a bit of psychological down time to balance the euphoria, you'd think, and those who get to see the Frankie that lives behind closed doors, away from the cameras, will confirm that even the world's most positive jockey isn't always a ray of sunshine.