Frankel,
the best racehorse in the world and one of the most exciting there has
ever been, returns to action on Saturday. When he steps on to the
Newbury turf, it will be an extraordinary moment and not just because
the spectators will have the unusual experience of looking at an animal
who is more valuable than the grandstand, which hardly ever happens away
from Bangor or maybe Fakenham.
A horse of Frankel's ability is
supposed to be at stud by now, earning a healthy income of, say, £50,000
per mare covered at an annual rate of more than 100 mares each year.
Sending him back to the track for another summer is a purely sporting
decision by his owner, Khalid Abdullah, because this is a horse whose
reputation and value are all but unimprovable.
Bloodstock agents,
asked to assess Frankel's worth before his most recent race in October,
came up with a figure of £100m. For that to go up, he would probably
have to prove his ability as a sire, which cannot happen until his sons
and daughters hit the track in four years.
Wonderhorse is
frequently bandied about in the spring of every Flat season, usually in
relation to some callow three-year-old who is sure to let his supporters
down at some point. Frankel gives the term renewed potency because, in
his case, its use is not appropriately answered by a cynical smirk. His
is the talent in which even the most hard-hearted hack is prepared to
believe.
Even so, a cool, clear-eyed assessment is expected from
the analysts at Timeform, the respected publishing firm that has been
rating racehorses for almost 70 years. "Everybody here, old and young,
believe he's the best we've ever seen," says Jamie Lynch, their chief
correspondent.
That, however, is not quite the official position.
Frankel has only the fourth-highest rating (143) in the history of
Timeform and Lynch would clearly enjoy giving Frankel the biggest number
yet, though he insists he is "not just going to do that, willy-nilly".
"The
problem is, it could be more about his opportunities than his ability
and he's going to need some help from his contemporaries if he's to get
to that figure. The good news is that there's some top-class horses out
there who could allow him to express his true ability.
"There's
Excelebration and Cirrus Des Aigles, who are both on 133, and then
there's Black Caviar [136]. If Frankel beats any one of those good
horses this year by five or six lengths, that will take him into realms
that no horse has ever been into in Timeform's history."
Excelebration
is among those due to oppose Frankel in next Saturday's Lockinge
Stakes, so Lynch's hopes could be fulfilled in a matter of days. And yet
he is concerned about whether the horse will be remembered with the
right degree of reverence.
"It's a bit disappointing that the
campaign that's been mapped out for him is only in Britain, so far. I'd
love to see him prove his worth on another stage and he'll maybe be
undermined slightly if he doesn't do that. We all believe he could win
almost any race at any distance on any surface."
When a horse
repeatedly lines up for races in conditions that are known to suit him,
rather than being tested in a new way, those close to him usually
justify their conservatism by saying they are doing what's best for him.
"But," says Lynch, "doing best by the horse is giving him the chance to
show himself in the best possible light."
He would like to see
Frankel turn up for the Breeders' Cup Classic in America in November, or
the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in France in October. Neither is favoured
as a target by Lord Grimthorpe, Abdullah's racing manager, who says:
"He'll follow the agenda that he shows us he is most capable of doing."
After
the Lockinge, that means Frankel will go to Royal Ascot for the Queen
Anne, or the Prince of Wales if it is decided he is ready to step up
from a mile to a mile and a quarter. His most likely races thereafter
are the Eclipse at Sandown in July, York's International in August,
which Abdullah sponsors, and the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October.
The
most likely targets abroad would be the Irish Champion Stakes in
September or the Prix d'Ispahan in France this month if the ground at
Newbury turns out to be bottomless, in which case he would miss the
Lockinge. "Whatever you do with a horse, people always want more,"
Grimthorpe sighs. "They say, why don't you run him over six furlongs or a
mile and a half, or why didn't you run him in Bucharest? The main thing
is, people [connected with other racehorses] have a good idea where
he's going and then, if they want to take him on, that would be fine."
Frankel's
trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, reports the horse sailed through his last
serious pre-Lockinge gallop on Saturday and should be ready for next
Saturday's race, despite having missed around 10 days with an injury
scare last month. So far as can be established, he has made a complete
recovery from the knock he gave one of his legs, which briefly prompted
rumours of his retirement.
"All the indications are that it
shouldn't be a problem," Grimthorpe says, adding that Frankel appears to
have matured in his attitude. "I think you're going to see a slightly
more controlled but nevertheless explosive racehorse."Grimthorpe admits
to having been "a bit nervous" as he waited for news of the scan that
would determine the extent of Frankel's recent injury. That took several
days because the horse could not be assessed until inflammation around
the site of his knock had reduced.
"When I first said
'haemhorraging', people looked at me like there was blood gushing from
his leg," Grimthorpe recalls, "but it was a tiny, tiny little bit that
just gives that inflammation. When the vets were happy with it, he went
straight to be scanned and thankfully the result was a good one."
He
pours cold water on the chance of a meeting between Frankel and Black
Caviar, the Australian sensation who achieved her 21st consecutive
victory yesterday and is due to visit England this summer. "Funnily
enough, I saw Peter Moody [trainer of Black Caviar] in Hong Kong the
other day and we joked about it.
"I think both camps understand
the big desire to see the two great champions clash but, in reality,
Black Caviar's programme looks like it's going to revolve around five to
seven furlongs, whereas our programme at the moment is between eight
and 10. You can't be all things to all people."
