Frankie Dettori: ‘Hearing the crowd shout my name is a very selfish buzz, but God I love it’

‘Actually, I’m quite good at this’: Frankie Dettori, champion jockey, at home in Newmarket with Plum, one of his miniature donkeys. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer

I’ve been very lucky with my genes. My mum worked in a circus. She was a contortionist and a trapeze artist, so I got my flexibility from her. The love for the horses I got from my old man.

When I started as a young boy, I was happy to be a middle-of-the-road jockey. Then I started winning and I thought, “Actually, I’m quite good at this.” The more I won, the more I wanted to win, and the rest slid out of my control. I never set out to be this good. Never in a million years did I think I’d get this far.