Frankie Dettori has announced he is filing for bankruptcy.
The world famous jockey has been attempting to untangle his tax arrangements in Britain after they were challenged by HMRC.
Dettori, 54, moved to the US at the end of 2023 after a 32-year riding career in his adopted home in which he became the most recognisable figure in his sport.
In December his lost a legal battle over his anonymity in proceedings at a specialist tax tribunal, after HMRC and the media said he should be identified. After the hearing, Dettori revealed issues had arisen after he had employed specialist tax advisers to look after his and his family’s financial affairs.
He said: “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.
“My new advisers and management team are working hard to unravel the mess that I have been put in. They are also working closely with HMRC to resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.”
However on Thursday the jockey announced the latest state of play, releasing a statement during the Cheltenham Festival. Dettori said: “For the last six-months, my advisors have been working with HMRC in an attempt to find a solution to my financial situation.
“Regretfully, I will be filing for bankruptcy. I am saddened and embarrassed by this outcome and would advise others to take a stronger rein over their financial matters.
“Bankruptcy is a major decision and its consequences will affect me for many years. I am relieved to be drawing a line on this long-term matter, which enables me to reset and focus on my international riding career.”
Dettori, who has been champion jockey three times in Britain, rode more than 2,500 winners in Britain since arriving in the country as a teenager.
Among many notable feats he went through the card when he completed what became known as ‘Frankie’s Magnificent Seven’ winners on the card at Ascot in September 1996.
He has won the Derby twice and ridden the winner of every Group 1 race in Britain at least once, apart from the July Cup.
He moved to California at the end of 2023 where he has continued to ride big winners and last month announced he was relocating to Florida to base himself on the east coast for the rest of 2025.
Dettori had originally brought an appeal to the First Tier Tribunal against HMRC’s decision to deny him some deductions for income tax.
In 2019 he asked for his case to be paused and more than a year later asked not to be named and for his case to be heard in private.
A judge in 2021 said that the “preliminary matter” could be heard in private, while a different judge in 2022 ruled that Mr Dettori should be anonymised.
HMRC brought a challenge and, in January this year, the more senior Upper Tribunal ruled there had been “material errors of law”, and overturned the decision to have some of the hearings in his case in private.
Dettori, 53, then made a bid to continue his anonymity, telling the tribunal that he was withdrawing the initial legal challenge over the tax deductions.
His lawyers argued that someone who has lost a bid to be kept anonymous should be able to withdraw their case without being named.
PA, the Times, the Sun and non-profit Tax Policy Associates, as well as HMRC, opposed the jockey’s anonymity, saying that not being named should be the exception and only when justified.
“The fact that the taxpayer 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,” Hui Ling McCarthy KC, for HMRC, said in written submissions, describing the structure used as a “tax avoidance scheme”.
In a judgment in November, Mr Justice Miles and Judge Thomas Scott ruled in favour of the media and HMRC, and on Monday, Dettori was named in the ruling.
The judges said: “If one steps back it is clear that something has gone awry… (The Taxpayer) has obtained the benefit of privacy for all preliminary proceedings, without having produced any evidence of harm or prejudice, for an open-ended period, in a situation where, should he decide to withdraw or settle his appeal and not pursue the privacy and anonymity application, that benefit would not be reversible.”
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