FRANKEL : ALL-TIME BEST?

Click above to watch Frankel winning the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Gr1)
(Image : Express & Star - Footage : Horse Course International)

QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAKES (Group 1)
Ascot, Turf, 1600m
15 October 2011

Brigadier Gerard, Mill Reef, Sea Bird, Ribot, Nearco, Man O’ War, Secretariat, Phar Lap, Sea Cottage. At some time or another, they’ve all been hailed the best ever, and since some of them were never beaten, their claims might have been legitimate.

The latest nominee is the modern-day hero, Frankel, whose victory in Saturday’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Gr1) at Ascot elicited the usual superlatives. And some. Sir Henry Cecil has been around a long time, and he’s won many a British trainers’ championship. He thinks Frankel is the best horse he’s ever seen, and that says something for a man who married the daughter of Sir Noel Murless, and knew the quality of the horses conditioned by that great man, as well. Like Henry, Sir Noel was made a Knight of the Realm for his prowess with racehorses.

You might’ve expected that from Cecil though, as he trains the horse, so when one of the world’s greatest-ever jockeys, Frankie Detorri, says so, (and he’s never ridden him), we should pay attention. What Frankie said though, was that he’s ridden 500 Group One winners, including the inimitable Dubai Millennium, and none of them were in Frankel’s class. That said, Frankie’s statement is limited to 500 Group One winners, and that doesn’t necessarily make him the best horse of all time, but it’s 500 Group One winners, nonetheless. He was quick to add, that the only view he’s had of Frankel, has been “his backside”.

But, we can take it one step further, with ex-British Champion jockey, Willie Carson, now an eminent TV personality, who’s unhesitating in stamping this one as the best in his lifetime. And so says another British Champion, Michael Roberts, who officiated as a panellist at our Emperors Palace Ready To Run Gallops on Friday.

So Frankel it is for the time being, and when you consider the number of horses in training around the world these days, and the fact that it’s more competitive than ever and more difficult to stand out, he must be in that tiny pantheon of all-time greats, at the very least. It’s tempting to say that his opposition have not been the best generation of milers ever, but what isn’t arguable is the way he’s been winning, and the times he’s been posting. Perhaps he’s just made the rest look ordinary, particularly as several of them have a line through Goldikova, who’s got 14 Group Ones on her CV.

Whilst we don’t want to open up an entirely new debate, at last week’s Tattersalls sales in the UK, Charley Gordon-Watson, as revered among bloodstockers as there is, proclaimed Frankel’s sire, Galileo, the best stallion in his lifetime. That immediately draws comparisons with Galileo’s own sire, Sadler’s Wells, the only horse in history to win as many as twelve European sires titles, by far eclipsing the previous record of Hyperion, and somewhat outdistancing St Simon. Gordon-Watson’s statement was qualified by the caveat that it was Galileo’s versatility which provides him the edge over his illustrious father, given he has some way to go before he’s strung together as many championships as Sadler’s Wells did; Galileo’s stock win Group Ones at two, they’re world-class at a mile as well as a mile and a half, and some of them can go on to two miles. Besides, they win in Europe, Australia, South Africa and, as illustrated by Together’s victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) at Keeneland on Saturday, they win in the United States too, all the time at Group One level.

LONDON NEWS : PASSING OF A WARRIOR

London News
(Photo : Freeman Stallions)

LONDON NEWS

It wouldn’t be overstating things that London News record-breaking victory in Hong Kong’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Gr.1) in 1997, was as big an event for South African racegoers, as the Springboks’ World Cup victory was in 1995.

As a five-time Group One winner, he gave weight and draw to the whole field, and while it would be overdoing things to say he beat “the world” on that historic day, that he broke the Sha Tin track record and had some serious performers in his wake, is no exaggeration.

As we remember one of South Africa’s gamest racehorses, lamenting his passing reminds us that this was no one-race-wonder. The Classic at Turffontein, the Daily News 2000 and the July at Greyville, and an astonishing performance in the J&B Met are all part this man’s C.V. Yet it was that day at Sha Tin that sticks in the mind.

He was the first “South African” to win abroad in the post-political era, and he was the first to win at anything like this level in the East. But those who lived through the political turmoil of the 1970s and 1980s, will know what events like this brought in the way of relief, and especially the recognition among local horsemen, that we could do it. It’s probably not beyond the realms of possibility, that it was this one performance that stimulated the likes of Mike de Kock to try their hands so in foreign climes in the years that followed. That’s another story, and it’s now so long, it demands a tome.

As much as anything, London News’ big day in Hong Kong was a tribute to the enterprise and sportsmanship of Laurie and Jean Jaffee, and the sad events of Monday which saw this great warrior laid to rest, brings to an end a spectacular chapter in the lives of three great South Africans.

RIP VAN WINKLE RIP TIDE

Please click above to watch
Rip Van Winkle in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes
and Shakespearean in the Goffs Million Mile
(Footage : YouTube)

RIP VAN WINKLE
QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAKES 

One of the world’s more prestigious Group One miles is traditionally run at Ascot on the last weekend of September in the form of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and this past weekend the Galileo colt, Rip Van Winkle added to the lustre of the race as he recorded his second consecutive Gr.1 in solid, if not entirely commanding, style.

Alighting from his mount in the aftermath, jockey Johnny Murtagh remained steadfast in his belief “I’m not going to take back what I said before – he’s one of the best I’ve ridden”. Yet, if you listen to his champion trainer Aidan O’Brien, you’d have to think there’s improvement in the horse, given his interrupted preparation “He got a very bad infection in all four of his heels in the spring, and it went down to his feet. Our vets have done a marvellous job in keeping him right, but he’s had another interrupted preparation since the Sussex (which he won a few weeks back), though he’s had a good run at it for the last few weeks”.

“He’s an unbelievable horse, and Johnny gave him a great ride. We didn’t put a pacemaker in, as we’d have to have a Gr.1 sprinter to lead him, and we didn’t have one of those”. A Gr.1 sprinter as a pacemaker says it all, and it tells us about the class of his great sire, Galileo, assuredly the best active stallion in Europe right now. There’s not much class in Rip Van Winkle’s female family, so we have to assume that most of what you see, is what you get from Galileo.

We don’t want to overdo this, but it’s a unique fact that as far as the southern hemisphere is concerned, Galileo has nothing more to come. Other, of course, than two superbly bred fillies in the Summerhill draft for this year’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run sale.

While on this subject, Europe’s leading freshman sire for 2009, Shamardal, is another with a filly in the sale. On Saturday he pretty much sewed up the first crop sire’s title when his son, Shakespearean (already a Gr.2 winner,) ran off with the €1,6 million Goffs Million Mile, putting Shamardal in an unassailable position, with scarcely two months to go to the end of the season.

IMBONGI : THE WARRIOR'S RETURN

Imbongi
John Bovington Memorial Criterion Stakes Gr3
(Photo : Daily Mail)

“IMBONGI takes England’s biggest race of the weekend”

All week, Mike de Kock has been tipping Imbongi as the horse who thrived most since his string arrived in the UK. When Imbongi had done and dusted the Criterion Stakes (Gr.3) in facile fashion his pilot, Kevin Shea dismounted with the announcement that this was just the beginning. He felt the horse could step up from here, and while he was non-committal about where he would go in the next month or so, knowing Mike de Kock, he’s likely to make the progression to Group 2 level, and then cast his eyes towards something like the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (Gr.1) at Ascot in September.

Like so many others in Mike de Kock’s yard, Imbongi really battled in Dubai, and was nowhere near his best, but Saturday he put all the ghosts away, and his form at last, approached the spectacles South African racegoers became accustomed to in his dual Guineas sagas and his demolition of four Grade One winners, including Horse of The Year, Pocket Power, in last year’s Drill Hall Stakes (Gr.2).

Don’t forget though, this was a horse that was turned out of the ring unsold at the Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run, and it took a man of Ronnie Napier’s decades in racing to recognise his potential on a frosty Saturday morning at the Summerhill gallops. So much for the unwanted child!

P.S. There was a double celebration in this one. Imbongi’s was the first winner from Sheikh Mohammed’s newly acquired Abingden Place yard, Mike’s English headquarters. If it weren’t for the Sheikh’s enterprise and his love of the game, we’d not’ve been in England.

 

Watch the John Bovington Memorial Criterion Stakes (Gr3)

TAMAYUZ : An Impressive Performance

Tamayuz
(Shadwell Stud)

What looked like the most impressive three year old miler performance this year (yes including HENRYTHENAVIGATOR), Sheikh Hamdan’s TAMAYUZ cruised away with Sunday’s Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard-Jacques le Marois Group One, beating Europe’s best milers including the Champion three year old filly-elect, NATAGORA.

TAMAYUZ is a son of Shadwell’s hot young stallion NAYEF, and comes from the female line responsible for the likes of GALILEO and KINGS BEST etc. If ever Sheikh Hamdan had a stallion prospect, it must rest here with five wins from six starts (including two Group Ones) and is about as handsome as handsome gets.

Whether Coolmore will risk HENRYTHENAVIGATOR against him in either the Prix de Moulin or the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, remains to be seen. But for those of us with a love of the game, we can only savour the prospect, if and when it comes off.