The Italian jockey Frankie Dettori has revealed he took cocaine before a positive dope test in France last September that brought him a six months ban.
In a television interview, the British-based jockey - one of the biggest names in flat racing - says he took cocaine because things were going bad, he was depressed and in a moment of weakness fell for it and he only has himself to blame.
Dettori, who won all seven races in a single afternoon at Ascot in 1996, says he was so ashamed and embarrassed when the news broke that he hid in his house for a week.
The interview was Dettori's first since he was suspended from December the 19th by the French racing authority France Galop after the positive test for a previously unidentified substance at Longchamp.
The ban expires on May 19th and Dettori will return as a freelance rider after it was announced in October that he would no longer be a retained jockey for Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin operation after an 18-year association.
