Frankie Dettori on his love for Enable, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner

Dettori could afford a look behind as Enable swept to victory in last year's Arc

Of the many reasons for which Frankie Dettori is admired, none maybe is greater than his staying power.

Set aside for a moment all the success and the famously joyous disposition, and consider that the 47-year-old started his career in this most potentially perilous of sports in Turin in his native Italy aged just 15.

And as Dettori looks forward to the John Gosden-trained, reigning Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe champion Enable on Sunday becoming a pretty extraordinary 30th mount in European flat racing's number one prize - which he's won a record five times - no event perhaps illustrates that better.

Since taking a first 'Arc' mount in 1988 on an outsider, he has missed only one staging, when a broken ankle forced his absence from the saddle on the 2013 winner Treve.

• Enable & Dettori seek Arc double

But, after 30-plus years of race-riding, the three-time champion jockey admits he has adjusted his routine to concentrate on the marquee events, with the aim of ensuring his famed longevity in the saddle doesn't come to an end just yet.

Speaking candidly to BBC Sport, Dettori said: "I am very lucky that I've got a boss like John [Gosden], and he understands me, and would rather have me at the weekend when I'm up for it than flogging me around the country when I'm not so interested.

"I'd be the first one to say I absolutely can't get any buzz by going around Windsor on a Monday, but every Friday or Saturday in front of a big crowd at a big meeting I come alive - it's the way I am; I guess after so many years it's the way my mind works.

"Twenty years ago I was eager to win every race, now I'm more enthusiastic and mentally fresh when there's something [big] to be chased. Hopefully it'll give me another few years riding."

So, contrary to a rumour that swept through the sport on Derby Day at Epsom in June, retirement has not been on his mind?

"That took me by surprise," he said. "Imagine retiring [on] Derby Day, that's a bit silly, isn't it?

"No, of course I'm not [retiring]. If I can, I will carry on another five years."

The Arc, Europe's richest horse race, is now back at its redeveloped and rebranded spiritual home, ParisLongchamp, after two years away at Chantilly.

No jockey has won the €5m (£4.43m) race as many times as Dettori, and Enable is warm favourite to become the eighth horse to record two victories - Treve (2013 and 2014) being the most recent.

Dettori, who has ridden more than 3,000 winners in his career, performs a flying dismount from Enable

'I love her' - Dettori on Arc favourite Enable

Owned and bred, like wonder horse Frankel, by Saudi Prince Khalid Abdullah, Enable won the 2017 Epsom, Irish and Yorkshire Oaks, plus the King George.

Her sequence of Group One race successes was extended to five when she and Dettori defeated a good quality Arc field emphatically.

Then, as a three-year-old and a female, her weight was jointly the lowest in the field.

But a year on, in the 97th staging of the race, the centrepiece of seven Group One thoroughbred races on 'Arc Weekend', her jockey concedes things will be harder for the filly, who made a belated return to the track after a knee injury with a stylish winning performance at Kempton in September.

Significantly, three-year-old fillies have been successful in three of the last seven runnings, and, another of that sex and age group, the William Haggas-trained Sea Of Class, the mount of jockey James Doyle, is well fancied this time.

Dettori said: "Last year she had everything in her favour - champion filly with the fillies' allowance - and this time the boot is on the other foot, and she's got to give weight to the others and she's missed a big chunk of the season.

"But even in my long career she's a once-in-a-lifetime horse - I actually joked to my wife I love her [Enable] more than her, and she kind of nodded saying 'I do believe so' - and to be riding her as she tries to win again is pretty special stuff.

"At Kempton, to see her demeanour, brilliance and aptitude on the track - she never sets the world on fire on the gallops - gave me a big relief.

"When she gets to the races, the adrenalin kicks in, the blood pumps faster and the heart beats stronger and she grows a foot, and all she wants to do is run."