At Ascot Bullet Train & Frankel
time that he raced over more than a mile. Consequently there was much anticipation as to whether he would stay the extra distance. Frankel won easily by seven lengths. After the race trainer Sir Henry Cecil said “It’s fantastic. It’s great for Yorkshire and they deserved to see him.” Henry Cecil, who has battled stomach cancer since 2006, was at York to see his prized asset extend his perfect record said the win made him feel “twenty years better.” Talk was now rife, Frankel was expected to have only one more race left in his career before standing as a stallion. Having demonstrated at York his ability comfortably to stay ten furlongs, there was much speculation that that there might be a change to his programme, with his final race being the twelve furlong (mile and a half) Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October. However it was the Champion Stakes at Ascot on the 20th October that marked the end of Frankel’s race career. The ground was more testing than he had faced hitherto, being soft, heavy in places, and the colt’s participation had been in doubt. The race had attracted a sell out crowd of 32,000 and in spite of losing several lengths at the start Frankel lived up to fans’ expectations and was cheered home to win by one and three-quarter lengths. After his win Sir Henry Cecil commented: “He’s the best I’ve ever had, the best I’ve ever seen. I’d be very surprised if there will ever be anything better.” After the Champion Stakes and Frankel’s fourteenth straight victory it was as anticipated announced that the four-year-old would be retiring from the world of racing. Frankel during his three-year career had amassing nearly £3 million in prize money and had established a reputation as one of the sport’s greatest competitors. Frankel’s dubbed “the Usain Bolt of the racing world” aggregate winning distance the total winning distance of all 14 races combined was 76 lengths, an average of over five lengths per race.
Despite Frankel’s impressive collection of prize money, the real benefit for his owner, Saudi Prince Khalid Abdullah, will come now from stud fees. With his impressive winning record of 14 out of 132
SUNSEARCH MAGAZINE
14, Frankel will command fees of around £100,000 the estimate is slightly on the shy side to be fair. At £100k a time and with him covering up to 120 mares in one breeding season it would only take him 8 years to have pocketed his owner £100m, provided his offspring prove as good as he is. As a result of these very high fees, Frankel has been valued at £100 million and if anyone wanted to buy him today they would probably have to find in excess of £75m to prise him out of the Prince’s hands. His astronomical value is equal to the price of 500 Ferraris, 600 Lamboughinis, three Gulfstream jets, or a couple of Premiership footballers. Frankel’s sire Galileo has sired twenty-six individual Group one or Grade 1 winners worldwide. His grandsire, Sadler’s Wells, sired over 100 winners in European Group One, including Galileo, Montjeu and Istabraq. Five of the last eight Epsom Derby winners were grandchildren of Sadler’s Wells: Authorized, Motivator, Pour Moi, Camelot and New Approach. This breeding and bloodstock prove Frankel is from a line of champions and now we must all wait in wonder to see what the next generation from this champion of champions’ will bring… And I for one cannot wait!