THE "Frankie factor" came back to haunt me at Doncaster on Wednesday afternoon, as the Italian jockey had punters purring and left me licking my wounds after he had landed a 179/1 four timer and made up some ground on Kieren Fallon in their battle for the jockeys' championship.

If losing out big time to the in-form rider was not bad enough, it got a whole lot worse when an Eccles-based punter took me to the cleaners with a Yankee which returned just over £56,000, which included a double your money bonus after selecting all of Dettori's winning mounts.

I will stock up on sponges and washing up liquid for my next visit.

Looking on the bright side, I won a bit of it back on Thursday afternoon after opposing the heavily supported Doncaster Cup favourite Darasim with an overnight quote of 3/1.

A potential loser on the book for more than £100,000, he went off at half that price but, fortunately for me, could not last home in a fierce gallop in a race dead-heated by Millenary and Kasthari.

I love the Doncaster St Leger meeting and Saturday's feature race should be a cracker. I felt like emigrating after Brian Boru did the business in the stayers' race last year.

But it is a more open contest this time around with the colt Rule Of Law looking certain to go off favourite for trainer Saeed bin Suroor after winning the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York last time.

I was on cloud nine as England bounced back in Poland on Wednesday night, plenty of my customers were prepared to lump on our boys at odds-on, and they were well rewarded as England landed the odds at 4/5, with one Altrincham shrewdie landing a massive return with a £100,000 single.

Following that match I make England 11/1 to go all the way in Germany 2006, and 1/5 to top Group Six.

With the internationals on the back burner for the next few weeks it is back to the Premiership and, as a North-west bookie, they do not come much bigger than Bolton against Manchester United.

I will be at the Reebok, and make Bolton 9/4 to continue a confident start to the season with a win against their neighbours. The Reds are evens for the away win with the draw at 9/4.