ON THIS DAY 20 years ago [September 28], a young Italian jockey triumphed on all seven winning horses on a single Ascot raceday, costing stunned bookmakers as much as £40 million.

The 'Magnificent Seven', as his glorious achievement came to be known, had never been done before and no one has ever matched it since.

That man, Frankie Dettori, was just shy of 26 years old at the time and went on to enjoy a glittering jockeying career with victories in more than 500 Group races.

He was even crowned 'World's Best Jockey' last year in a vote by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

But he will surely go down in the history books for alone for that awesome feat on one Ascot day in 1996.

Says Frankie: "In all the things that I did in my career, if I have to pick one thing that I’ll remember, then it’s winning those seven races at Ascot."

That September day was one of the most competitive events in the racing calendar, including the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

After Frankie won this and the first four races, the nerves started to take hold when he suddenly became overwhelmed with the thought of making history.

He recalls: "All of a sudden I took a step back and started worrying about it.

"And then I won the sixth race and I celebrated, sprayed the crowd with champagne and I really achieved something that I thought I would never do in my career."

Frankie credits his horse Fujiyama Crest with changing racing forever as he went on to smash the seventh and climatic race.

"The horse was a big outsider and I didn’t expect him to win," he adds.

"He’s the one who made me famous, who took racing from the back pages to the front pages.

"I met so many people throughout England who had won fortunes including people who had put a pound suddenly winning £25,000 – it was mad."

The odds of the 5'4" Milanese winning all seven races had been put at 25,051 to one.

But, as it turned out, that incredible day at Ascot would only be the start of a remarkable racing success story.