By the time Shohei Ohtani took his last swing early in the evening of Sept. 19, sending yet another official Rawlings baseball (made in Costa Rica) into the stands at Miami’s loanDepot Park for his sixth hit and third home run of the game against the Miami Marlins, the thoughts of this diehard Los Angeles Dodgers fan had turned to a hospital room on Long Island, N.Y., where Frankie Dettori was being treated for a separated shoulder suffered that afternoon at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Mr. 6-for-6, meet Signore 7-for-7.

Both Ohtani and Dettori qualify as transcendent sports stars, gifts that keep on giving. Ohtani already was having a good year—his first with the Dodgers—before his assault on the Marlins, while Dettori has provided a growing list of highlights during his first full season riding in the States.

There are no freakish accidents in horse racing. They happen as a course of doing business, and jockeys know the score. One of the most dangerous places is always the starting gate, a setting in which these eyes witnessed the fatal head injury sustained by Alvaro Pineda at Santa Anita Park in 1975.

Dettori was just entering the outside gate in the final race of the day aboard the maiden filly Pretty Liza  when she reared and launched her 53-year-old jockey to the Aqueduct turf.

“He landed hard on his right elbow and his shoulder popped out,” said Ron Anderson, Dettori’s agent, Sept. 20. “They got it back in place at the hospital and he was discharged. He’s uncomfortable, but better this morning. He’ll see a specialist on Monday to see where we are, but we won’t be at Finger Lakes.”

In any other context, such a comment would sound like a goof. Anderson was on the square, however. Dettori’s résumé includes two wins in the Epsom Derby (G1), three in the Japan Cup (G1), four in the Dubai World Cup (G1), and six in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1). On Monday, he was heading to Farmington, N.Y., in an attempt to add the Lady Finger Stakes and/or the Aspirant Stakes to his trophy case, which speaks volumes of the way Dettori has approached his American adventure.

Dettori has ridden 364 races in 2024, with his 64 winners representing the bulk of the $10.7 million earned by his mounts. Compared to the 1,144 ridden by Irad Ortiz Jr. or the 1,110 by Tyler Gaffalione through Sept. 20, Frankie comes off like a man on a dangerous vacation. But his numbers come to an average of $29,523 per ride, second only to the giddy $32,960 pace established this year by Flavien Prat.

“I’m trying to be very selective with him, obviously,” Anderson said. “We’re trying to handpick his rides, which is where he deserves to be. But he’s been more than happy to jump on a plane to anywhere. He doesn’t care. He’s ridden at 14 tracks (in North America) this year. Finger Lakes would have been 15.”

We are approaching the 28th anniversary of Dettori’s Magnificent Seven, that very Shohei Ohtani kind of day Dettori recorded for posterity at Ascot Racecourse Sept. 28, 1996. It was not the royal meet, but a pretty choice autumn program, with a card topped by the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1).

Dettori was a few months shy of 26, riding under contract to Godolphin. He won the first two races with Wall Street and Diffident, followed by Mark of Esteem in the Queen Elizabeth. Decorated Hero came through for Dettori in the fourth race, at a price of 7-1 that proved to be the windfall of the day. Out of self defense, bookmakers slashed the odds on his final three rides, but still paid dearly after victories by Fatefully, Lochangel, and Fujiyama Crest.

The BBC broke into its regular TV coverage to show the last of the seven rides. Dettori’s histrionics reportedly cost the bookmakers £30 million in payoffs, which was real money in 1996, and the young jockey was on his way to a fame which he has never relinquished.

Sweeping clean a day at a place like Ascot was unthinkable, but it was not the first time a jockey had won seven races on a program. Both Ortiz and Gaffalione have turned the difficult trick, along with Laffit Pincay Jr., Jerry Bailey, Victor Espinoza, Luis Saez, Paco Lopez, Drayden Van Dyke, Tim Thornton, and Alejandro Medallin, among others. Russell Baze did it twice, and, earlier this month, Manny Franco won seven at Colonial Downs.

Richard Hughes went 7-for-8 at England’s Royal Windsor Racecourse in 2012. The great Sir Gordon Richards was 6-for-6 at Chepstow in Wales in October of 1933 on his way to 12 consecutive wins over three days. And, lest anyone forget, apprentice Hubert Jones won eight races from 13 mounts at Agua Caliente June 11, 1944. Forty-three years later, Jones was in the stewards stand at Santa Anita to make Pincay’s seven-spot official.

More than 80 major league ballplayers have gone 6-for-6 in a nine-inning game, making Ohtani just the latest in a long and varied list. And what’s this? Just April 6, that Dettori fellow won six straight races at Santa Anita Park to jumpstart a season to remember, featuring graded stakes wins, so far, at seven different tracks in the United States.

“In the beginning people were wondering if he was retired, like he announced last year, or is he here to ride,” Anderson said. “Not any more. In fact, he’s got paperwork good for three more years to ride here, so I think that’s more like the timeline on any retirement.”

Dettori’s immediate plan was to jump from Finger Lakes next week back to Santa Anita for California Crown Day Sept. 28, then continue to ride at Aqueduct until it was time to decamp for Del Mar and the Breeders’ Cup weekend in early November. All that’s on hold, for now, but only a fool would count him out. As Dettori relayed in a text Friday afternoon:

“I’ll be back.”