Frankel

Frankely Fantastic

In the seven seasons since his first runner Cunco won a six-furlong maiden at Newbury, Frankel has put himself on track to be as extraordinary a stallion as he was a racehorse

Photos: Melanie Sauer, Trevor Jones & Peter Mooney • Words: James Thomas

“He’s the best I’ve ever had, the best I’ve ever seen. I'd be very surprised if there's ever been anything better.” Those words have gained added poignancy since they were uttered by Sir Henry Cecil in October 2012. That assessment came in the emotional aftermath of Frankel’s victory in the Champion Stakes, the final performance of one of the turf’s defining racing careers.

Prince Khalid Abdullah’s homebred retired with an unblemished record of 14 out of 14, with ten of those wins gained in Group 1 company. His jaw-dropping efforts in the Queen Anne Stakes and Juddmonte International were given ratings of 140 by Longines’ World Thoroughbred Rankings.

Given the style and substance of his achievements, it is fitting that Frankel is officially the highest-rated turf horse in history. He is the benchmark against which all others are measured.

The story of his rise from headstrong juvenile to undefeated dual world champion is linked inextricably with his trainer, who passed away aged 70 after a hard-fought battle with stomach cancer. Cecil’s death came less than eight months after the 2012 Champion Stakes, with many believing that the responsibility of guiding Frankel through his racing career helped sustain the iconic trainer during his illness. Not only was Cecil hugely successful, training 25 Classic winners and claiming ten trainers’ championships, he also attained a popularity with the racing public that few, if any, in his profession had before. There can be no finer tribute to the late, great trainer than Frankel. And not only because of what he achieved on the racecourse, but what has happened since.

A new chapter

There was intense hype around Frankel’s retirement to Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud ahead of the 2013 breeding season. His introductory fee of £125,000 was befitting a horse of his celebrity status and he duly attracted a stellar debut book. He covered 149 mares in that first season, among which were 38 Group/Grade 1 winners and the dams of 25 top-level scorers.

His eagerly anticipated first foals began arriving early the following year. However, by the time that first crop reached the sales in the winter of 2014 the rumours had started, with naysayers levelling accusations that he hadn’t stamped his stock. His second book of mares was of a similar standard to the first, but there were so many doubts around by the spring of 2015 that the quality and quantity of his third book dropped markedly.

It is a well-established fact that the majority of stallions don’t come up to scratch, and history is littered with examples of outstanding racehorses who failed to emulate their racing success at stud. Most had sky-high expectations for Frankel, but for some the jury was out.

All eyes were on the six-furlong maiden at Newbury on May 13, 2016 when Cunco became the first of Frankel’s progeny to step out onto the racecourse. The Don Alberto Corporation homebred may have had his moments during the preliminaries, but once the stalls opened there was very little to worry about. Cunco quickened up smartly to score by three-quarters of a length, and in turn provided his sire with the perfect start to his second career.

That may have only been a run-of-the-mill maiden, but it was the start of a very steep upward curve for the Juddmonte stallion. Now, over seven years on, Frankel hasn’t just silenced the doubters, he looks something completely out of the ordinary.

Rewriting the record books

By the time the May Hill Stakes of 2021 came around, Inspiral not only became Frankel’s 50th group scorer but her success saw her sire reach a half-century of pattern race winners faster than any European stallion had before. At the end of that season, Frankel dethroned Galileo to claim his first British and Irish champion sire title.

“He is capable of siring top-class runners of any sex, any age, anywhere and over virtually any distance”

And when Emotion won the Listed Chalice Stakes in July the following year, Frankel equalled the record for siring the fastest 100 black-type winners. The record was previously held outright by Danehill, with the pair reaching the milestone in exactly 2,402 days, albeit the son of Danzig had the benefit of a dual-hemisphere covering career.

However, with the trend towards bigger books of mares rather muddying the waters of what these achievements actually amount to, these accolades don’t fully reflect the scale of Frankel’s accomplishments. The deeper you dig, the more impressive his statistics become.

Frankel’s roll of honour is capped by 33 top-flight winners, and while that number may be a relatively small sample size in the context of a stallion’s career, the identity and achievements among this group neatly illustrates a big part of what makes Frankel so special: he is capable of siring top-class runners of any sex, any age, anywhere and over virtually any distance.

His top-class two-year-olds include Dewhurst Stakes winner Chaldean, who added the 2000 Guineas at three, and Inspiral, one of three daughters to land the Fillies’ Mile. Inspiral went on to land five more Group/Grade 1 prizes, culminating in this year’s Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

He has sired ten Classic winners, from the aforementioned Chaldean, and Irish 1000 Guineas scorer Homeless Songs, to Epsom winners in Adayar, who claimed the Derby, and Anapurna and Soul Sister, who struck in the Oaks. He has also fielded two St Leger scorers in Hurricane Lane and Logician.

The 2022 Irish 1000 Guineas victor, Homeless Songs is one of ten Classic winners sired by Frankel, but his progeny can also be precocious as well as achieving at the highest level as older horses and in any part of the world (PM)

His older brigade includes dual Champion Stakes victor Cracksman, Prince Of Wales's Stakes and Juddmonte International winner Mostahdaf, and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista, while his high-achieving stayers include Courage Mon Ami, who triumphed in the Gold Cup, and the Prix du Cadran-winning Call The Wind.

As well as all his British and Irish success, Frankel has also sired Group/Grade 1 winners in Australia, Dubai, France, Germany, Japan and North America.

In 2023 alone Frankel has been represented by 11 Group/Grade 1 winners, more than any other stallion on the planet, and by the end of the Breeders’ Cup, his stud record featured 208 flat stakes performers worldwide, a figure that includes 91 group or graded winners. He will also regain his British and Irish champion sire crown at the end of the year, as his progeny earnings are over €3 million clear of his nearest pursues, Dark Angel and Dubawi.

Many believe the responsibility of guiding Frankel through his racing career helped sustain the iconic trainer, Henry Cecil during his illness (TJ)

His northern hemisphere group/graded winners have come at a strike rate of 12%, while 27 % of his runners have gained black type. These figures compare favourably with other elite stallions, with Dubawi and Galileo’s group winners-to-runners strike rates standing at 11% and 10% respectively. That pair have sired black-type performers-to-runners at respective clips of 24% and 25%.

Having compiled such impressive statistics there is little wonder that the clamour for Frankel’s stock at the sales has intensified. He sired the two most expensive lots at Book 1 of this year’s Tattersalls’ October Yearling Sale, led by the 2m guineas colt out of Bizzarria, and the top lot at the Goffs Orby Sale, the €1.85m filly out of Multilingual. Both yearlings were bought by Coolmore’s MV Magnier, the former in partnership with Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.

The combination of recent success, both racing and sales, has prompted Juddmonte to raise the price of Frankel’s nomination fee to £350,000 for 2024, making him the joint-most expensive stallion in the world alongside Dubawi. In announcing the increase, Juddmonte said Frankel’s new fee “reflects his standing amongst the all-time great stallions”.

“If the results of these supercharged books see Frankel’s progeny hit new heights on the track, then the sky really is the limit”

More in store

In truth, Frankel still has work to do before he can be considered an all-time great. There is, however, a mountain of evidence that suggests his best days are still ahead of him. If he remains hale and hearty and can maintain his current standards, there is undoubtedly a place in that elite category with his name on it.

Frankel has never lacked support at stud, but the quality and quantity of mares within his books has only increased since he began showing breeders just how good he really is. In 2017, in the afterglow of his debut two-year-old crop including talents like Fair Eva, Queen Kindly and his first top-flight winner Soul Stirring, breeders piled back into Frankel with renewed enthusiasm.

The fullness of time revealed that his debut crop contained 24 worldwide black-type winners, including six who struck at Group/Grade 1 level. The crop conceived in 2017 matched those heights, with 24 more black-type winners and another six top-flight scorers.

Cracksman put the seal on Frankel’s first crop of three-year-olds by winning the Champion Stakes five years after his sire made his final racecourse appearance in the same race. The crop conceived in 2018 after that first domestic Group 1 has proved Frankel’s most productive to date, yielding 28 global black-type winners, including nine who struck at the highest level. Those are seriously punchy numbers.

Frankel’s first seven crops of three-year-olds have accounted for 32 of his 33 Group/Grade 1 winners and came from books of mares numbering between 221 (in 2017) and 114 (2015), while the percentage of black-type mares within those books has remained between 67% (2013 and 2017) and 59% (2016).

The results from those crops have been impressive enough, but the details of his most recent books raise the possibility that Frankel could be about to raise his game even further. In 2022, after Frankel was crowned champion sire for the first time, he covered 232 mares at an elevated fee of £200,000. Of those, 69% (159) boasted black type. Although the volume dipped slightly in 2023, when his fee was upped to £275,000, the 196-strong book comprised a hefty 78% (153) black-type mares.

Moreover, the 428 matings from the last two breeding seasons saw Frankel cover 97 Group/Grade 1-winning mares (23% of the combined books) and 65 Group/Grade 1-winning producers (15%). Ten of those matings were with those incredibly rare mares who not only won a Group 1 on the track themselves, but went on to breed a top-flight winner at paddocks. Among those are Coolmore’s blue hens Halfway To Heaven (dam of Magical and Rhododendron) and Lillie Langtry (Empress Josephine, Minding and Tuesday), as well as Red Evie (Found).

If the results of these supercharged books see Frankel’s progeny hit new heights on the track, then the sky really is the limit. And given covering fees are usually a fair reflection of the mare quality within each book, who knows how his 2024-conceived crop will look now that he is standing at the world’s highest fee.

Frankel contributed to Galileo surpassing the likes of Danehill and Sadler’s Wells to become the most prolific sire of Group/Grade 1 winners in history. The late Coolmore resident is poised on 99 top-flight scorers at the time of writing.

It is food for thought, then, that Frankel is currently trending ahead of his own sire, who had 31 Group/Grade 1 winners by the corresponding stage of his career, albeit having started out at a much lower fee. Could Frankel one day eclipse the spectacular achievements of Galileo? He looks to have every chance.

Next generation

And Frankel’s influence looks set to deepen beyond his own stud record, having already started to make a profound impact from the second generation of pedigrees. His growing roster of sire sons is led by his highest-rated runner Cracksman, who in turn bred Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero Ace Impact. The unbeaten champion is due to begin his own stud career at Haras de Beaumont at a fee of €40,000 in 2024.

Next year the European stallion ranks will also include Chaldean (Banstead Manor Stud), Mostahdaf (Beech House), Onesto (Haras d’Etreham), Triple Time (Dalham Hall) and Without Parole (Newsells Park), while Hurricane Lane joins fellow St Leger winner Logician as part of the national hunt roster. Meanwhile, Adayar and Westover will begin their stud careers in Japan, where they join another son of Frankel in Mozu Ascot.

And, despite his oldest daughters only just rising ten, Frankel is also making his presence felt as a broodmare sire. In Japan, Mozu Meimei, a daughter of Real Impact out of the Frankel mare In Luxury, won the Grade 2 Tulip Sho, while Noble Truth, a €1.1m son of Kingman and Speralita, won the Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot and also finished runner-up to Angel Bleu in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère. Given how many blue-blooded crops he has in the pipeline, his daughters’ record as producers can only improve, possibly significantly so, over the coming seasons.

When Sir Henry Cecil told reporters that he’d be very surprised if there'd ever be anything better than Frankel, he was, of course, referring to his racing ability. But if the Banstead Manor resident continues on his current trajectory, it won’t be long before that assessment is being shared by those reflecting on Frankel’s prowess at stud too.

FRANKEL'S BREEDING STATISTICS

Covering year	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
BT mares covered	100	94	72	76	147	130	106	106	123	159	153
% of BT mares	67	66	63	59	67	63	66	61	61	69	78
BT horses bred	33	32	21	19	37	37	25	4	-	-	-
BT winners bred	24	19	10	11	24	28	13	4	-	-	-
GW bred	19	10	9	6	15	22	8	2	-	-	-
G1 winners	6	2	2	3	6	9	4	1	-	-	-