LONDON — Top Italian jockey Frankie Dettori said he is “working closely” with Britain’s tax authorities after losing a challenge to avoid being publicly named in a tax dispute.
Dettori has been involved in a legal dispute with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which denied him some deductions for income tax.
A judge ruled in 2022 that Dettori could have anonymity during the case, Britain’s Press Association reported. The jockey was named in a court ruling Monday after losing a bid to continue having the publication of his name suppressed.
The PA news agency was among the media who challenged Dettori’s right to anonymity and has published a statement from him, in which he said he has hired new advisers “to unravel the mess that I have been put in.”
“A few years ago I employed the services of professional specialist tax advisers to look after mine and my family’s financial affairs,” Dettori said in the statement. “A structure was created and I was told that it had been approved by HMRC.
“Years later HMRC is now challenging that structure. My former advisers have since been dismissed.”
Dettori added that his new advisers and management team “are also working closely with HMRC to resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.”
Hui Ling McCarthy, the lawyer working for HMRC, said the fact that Dettori “may be in the public eye and may prefer the public not to know about his affairs does not justify the principle of open justice being restricted,” PA reported.
Dettori announced in December 2022 that he would be retiring at the end of the 2023 season, but reversed that decision and moved to compete in the United States.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bob Baffert returned to Churchill Downs for the first time in 3½ years on Wednesday, saddling the winner in the seventh race at the home of the Kentucky Derby.
Churchill Downs Inc. CEO Bill Carstanjen shook hands with the Hall of Fame trainer he once battled in court. In 2021, Baffert began serving what was ultimately a three-year ban by CDI. It ended in July, with Baffert taking responsibility for a failed drug test by one of his horses.
Baffert watched as Barnes won his career debut by a head over a horse trained by fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas. The $3.2 million colt is named for Baffert’s longtime assistant, Jimmy Barnes.
Baffert has won the Kentucky Derby a record-tying six times. His horse, Medina Spirit, crossed the finish line first in 2021 but was later disqualified for failing a post-race drug test, which prevented Baffert from earning a seventh victory.
The DQ led to multiple lawsuits filed by Baffert. Medina Spirit’s failed test as well as other drug violations led the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission to fine Baffert and suspend him for 90 days, a ban that was honored at other tracks nationwide.
But all that was put aside Wednesday.
Barnes could be a contender for Baffert in next year’s Kentucky Derby.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
