Dettori dedicated the championship to his wife Catherine, who was on hand with their four children as he received the trophy from his great rival at the Town Moor track.

Afterwards Dettori declared he would be going all out to retain the title next year.

He said: "I'm going to have a shot. I'm not saying I'm going to win it, but I'm going to be knocking on the door again.

"But Kieren, The Assassin, never drops the bone, so he's going to be even hungrier next year."

Dettori picked out Doyen's scintillating victory in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes as the highlight of the campaign.

He will now be able to put his feet up after picking up a 31-day careless riding suspension aboard Mamool in last Tuesday's Melbourne Cup.

Dettori's employers Godolphin were leading owners for the fifth time, while their trainer Saeed Bin Suroor topped his category for the fourth occasion. Tom Queally was champion apprentice with 59 winners.

Although Fallon relinquished his title on Saturday, he still took his share of the limelight when he won the Enter The £1m (€1.4m) totetentofollow November Handicap on the Brian Ellison-trained Carte Diamond.

The win vindicated Ellison's shrewd judgement as he bought Carte Diamond out of the Mark Johnston stable for 105,000 gns at Doncaster Sales only two weeks ago.

The Malton handler was going to have the three-year-old gelded, but he added: "Kieren said we shouldn't as he is such a good horse, so we won't! We were going to run him over hurdles, but I don't think we will now and next year we will train him for the Ebor at York."

Toby Balding's hopes of ending his great training career with a big winner were dashed with Turbo finishing only 12th.

The man himself was at Sandown, where he saddled Desailly to finish second in the Group Clean Handicap Chase.

Balding, who has trained two Grand National winners and two Champion Hurdle winners as well as a winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, has now handed over his training licence to his son-in-law Jonathan Geake.

Following Desailly's seven-length defeat by Colonel Frank, hundreds of racegoers crowded around the unsaddling enclosure as fellow trainers and jockeys joined Balding, 68, for a presentation as a mark of his services to the racing industry.

In-form trainer Paul Nicholls dominated at Wincanton, where he struck in the main events with Royal Auclair and Perouse, both of them ridden by 21-year-old Christian Williams.

Both horses underwent breathing operations on exactly the same day during the summer.

Williams found the target first when the rejuvenated Royal Auclair took the £80,000 (€114.500) Badger Ales Trophy, building up a lead of about four lengths entering the home straight and keeping on well to beat Gunther McBride by two lengths.

"I was going to go for the Becher Chase or the Hennessy but that has really made my mind up," said Nicholls, who will point the seven-year-old towards Newbury.

Rigmarole was sent off the 6-5 favourite to give the Nicholls stable a double in the totesport Elite Hurdle, but 12 months after flopping in the race, he again failed to sparkle and trailed home sixth.

Instead it was Williams and Perouse, having set off at a good pace and never seeing a rival throughout, who combined to score, beating Howle Hill by seven lengths.