THE HORSE WHO MADE DREAMS COME TRUE
It’s six years since the great Frankel last ran like the wind. Now he’s prolific in the breeding sheds
STRAIGHT away you can see why they have chosen the words ‘ nosey’ and ‘greedy’. Bobby, as he is known in these parts, has poked his head over the stable door. He has heard the click-click-clicking of a camera and his ears are flicking back and forth to locate the sound.
Bobby loves being the centre of attention, always has done. There is, however, one thing he enjoys more than posing for pictures. His nose is twitching after he has picked up the scent of his daily treat and the impatient clacking of his hooves on the floor leave you in no doubt he wants feeding — now.
A familiar face is quickly on hand and Bobby is soon crunching his way through a sack of carrots. Here is a horse whose every whim is pandered to, but there is good reason. This, after all, is no ordinary equine. This is the best there has been. This is Frankel.
************ IT IS six years since Frankel — who was masterfully trained by Sir Henry Cecil for his owner-breeder Prince Khalid Abdullah — last ran like the wind and his unblemished 14-race career ended in a blaze of glory, but he continues to be talked about as much as before.
So, we are at Banstead Manor Stud in the village of Cheveley, just outside Newmarket. This is the headquarters of Juddmonte Farms and it is where Frankel was foaled 10 years ago. He is now a stallion, passing his prodigious genes to tomorrow’s stars.
Juddmonte are an organisation synonymous with some of horseracing’s all-time greats, from Dancing Brave to the dual Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe heroine Enable, but parading in front of us with his coat gleaming in the mid-morning sun is the one who made dreams come true.
To explain how he did it is Lady Jane Cecil. She has joined us for the visit to Banstead Manor and is soon telling stories of how her late husband sculpted a champion out of the headstrong, over-enthusiastic juvenile that first walked into their fabled Warren Place yard.
‘He loved his routine,’ recalls Lady Cecil. ‘He knew what was expected of him. He knew that on a Monday he was just going to do a nice steady canter. On a Monday he’d just do one canter, and on Tuesday two. He’d be happy to just lob up there. He was the most intelligent horse.’
But he was also a thrill- seeker. There is a story of Frankel — who was named in honour of Bobby Frankel, the great trainer who had given Juddmonte such success in America — being so exuberant on an area of Newmarket’s gallops called ‘Railway Land’ that he ran faster one morning than a passing train. ‘I have to tell you it wasn’t an express train and the drivers are very wary about the gallops!’ says Lady Cecil.
That may be so, but Frankel was an express train. He won four races as a two-year-old, five — including the most spectacular demolition of a 2000 Guineas field in history — in his Classic season before going on to win Ascot’s QIPCO Champion Stakes in his final campaign.
‘I always remember when we were coming back to the winners’ enclosure after Frankel had won the Royal Lodge Stakes as a twoyear-old,’ says Lady Cecil. ‘Henry never walked and talked. If he wanted to say something, he’d always stop. It was as if he couldn’t walk and talk.
‘ Everything Henry did was through instinct and feel. He’d had more than 30 years’ experience when Frankel came along. So he stopped and said, “I think he’s the best I’ve ever had”. With his experience, it’s as if it was all building towards Frankel.’
There is a pause as those words sink in. Cecil was one of the greatest trainers and the list of his good horses and many achievements is supremely long. He was not one to make frothy, heat-of-the-moments claims, so his declaration startled his wife.
‘It seems so obvious now, that all the good horses that Henry had before obviously weren’t at that level,’ she says. ‘He was breathtaking. They didn’t go on the Al Bahathri or Limekilns gallops the way Frankel did it. Then he just got better and better.’
This is why Frankel became so popular and the story we are retelling is so remarkable. Cecil, who was so loved by the racing world, had a spell around 2005 when it appeared his time as a trainer was fizzling out. His stable was short on numbers and bereft of quality. His life was also complicated by the fact he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2006.
His link, nonetheless, with Prince Khalid, a member of Saudi Arabia’s Royal family, remained strong. Lord Teddy Grimthorpe, Juddmonte’s racing manager, explains how Frankel was assigned to Cecil.
‘I have talked to Prince Khalid about it,’ says Grimthorpe, sitting in a drawing room that doubles as a shrine to Frankel’s achievements. ‘Frankel was just an extraordinary alignment of the stars. If he had been born two years earlier in 2006, would he have gone to Henry then? Probably not. If it was two years later, he might not have gone because Henry was so ill.
‘Bobby Frankel had trained for Prince Khalid for 20-odd years and was responsible for our success in America. He was an integral part and his ethos, the way he looked after horses, was superb.
‘Then he got leukaemia and died in the November (2009) when Frankel was a yearling. So this horse suddenly appears. When he was a yearling, in the September of that year, we got a saddle on him. You saw he began to muscle up a bit more and we thought “Phew!”
‘The heart really did begin to beat then. I remember Henry asking, just before we sent his yearlings, “What are mine like?” I said to him, “We are sending you something I don’t think we have ever sent you — or anybody”.
‘He has dominated my life more than any other horse has ever done or could do. I used to go to the gallops every day. You didn’t have to be Archimedes to work out that he was going to be quite useful!
‘Everyone says half the job is in the brain and he had a great brain, to go with the great physical attributes. That is why he was such a package.’
He became box office. You need champions to be standard-bearers in any sport and what made Frankel so spectacular was the way he would pummel fields of the highest class. There were no photo finishes, just demolition jobs.
‘When he was champion twoyear-old, I would get calls from the
Racing Post,’ says Grimthorpe. ‘After his Guineas win, it was an explosion. As he did it more and there was more of a story, suddenly you went from not just talking to
Channel 4 Racing but Channel 4 News. Then it was News at 10, BBC
News. In his last year, it was Bloomberg TV, The Wall Street
Journal, South African TV. ‘I did a radio show in Australia once a month. I did two hours with Al Jazeera! It went off the scale.
‘Lots of people said, “He’s keeping Henry alive”, but I felt it was a double-edged thing. Half of it was killing him. It was the pressure. The constant worry. But equally, the performances release all that. It was almost like a valve.
‘Frankel just arrived at the right time. With Henry’s life in its twilight, to have the two parts of that story was just… Well, you couldn’t make it up, could you?’
**** THE day Frankel left Warren Place, in the autumn of 2012, to return to Banstead Manor for his life as a stallion, was raw with emotion for the Cecils.
It was also a day that everyone who welcomed him back home will never forget, either. Frankel had a stable specially built for him and in the adjacent box was Oasis Dream, who at that point was Juddmonte’s leading sire.
He had been a sprinter in his pomp, a ball of fire with a domineering personality. He sensed Frankel’s arrival and didn’t like it.
‘He is in charge, he is the one who counts,’ says Simon Mockridge, Juddmonte’s stud director.
‘It was very interesting when he arrived here. For three days after that, Oasis Dream, who was very much in charge, wouldn’t put his head over the door. He stayed with his backside showing. It was like recognition. It was recognition that a bigger beast had come into the yard. It was extraordinary.
‘He is an amazing horse. That is the thing with the good ones — they know they are good. They know they’re the best.’
Lady Cecil concurs, saying: ‘I’ll never forget when I took Lady Howard de Walden to see her horse one day. I walked past Frankel and he was like, “Excuse me, I’m here!” So I said, “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to say hello to Frankel, then we’ll have a look at your horse!”’
And that is the point about this horse. Everyone wants to look at him. AP McCoy, the greatest National Hunt jockey, has only ever asked for his picture to be taken twice — once was with Zinedine Zidane, the other was with Frankel.
His reach is such that East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices made Frankel an ambassador alongside popstar Ed Sheeran and jockey Frankie Dettori.
At Newmarket racecourse, a bar has been named in his honour with video screens on which you can watch all his races.
On the track you can now look at his offspring, the best of which so far has been Cracksman, who on Saturday week will attempt to win the QIPCO Champion Stakes for a second time. It doesn’t always work out that great racehorses become great sires, but Frankel is different. A son of the 2001 Epsom Derby winner Galileo, the outstanding sire of the 21st century, Frankel is proving to be just as prolific in the breeding sheds. He stands at a cost of £175,000 and covered 180 mares last year. There will be more of the same next year, though a union with Enable is unlikely.
The numbers involved are mind-boggling and are indicative of his pedigree.
‘How much he is worth is always a very leading question and I don’t think it is one I should try to answer,’ explains Mockridge. ‘I mean, how long is a piece of string? He is a great ambassador for racing. His was a great story and we couldn’t replicate him. To us, he is absolutely priceless.’
lFoR tickets to QIPCo British Champions Day on Saturday october 20: britishchampionsday.com