Following a tweet from Gary Derwin - a conditional jockey at Nicky Hendersons yard saying "Frankel out for the season". Connections have announced that a further scan is required on his leg injury that was thought to have only been a minor one. Personally I don't think we will see him race again.
Maybe he's lost 15 lengths and is only half the horse he was, so it's retirement time. Only joking. Not good news though.
The press statement that Teddy Grimthorpe put out today stated that the first scan showed no damage at all, but they are going to give him a second scan next week to be absolutely sure that he is ok before deciding whether or not to go ahead with his racecourse gallop next Saturday. I have heard nothing in Newmarket to suggest that his career is over, and believe me if it was it would be all over the town by now!
From Racing Post: Speaking to the Racing Post, Lord Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah, said: "Frankel has been scanned and no damage was shown, but we will have him scanned again next week and we will know more then. "That will tell us more, I wish I could say more conclusively one way or the other, but we just don't know. We remain hopeful but obviously it is a concern, we wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise. "You have to take every precaution and he is in the best hands, receiving all the right attention. I can't predict what will happen. If something comes up, it comes up, but we are still hopeful he will be fine. We'll know more in a week's time."
I wrote in one of the threads last year that i would only believe he would race at 4 when we saw him going down to the start. I have really looked forward to this season like no other and will be beyond consoling if he gets retired. Thanks for the updates Princess, please keep us updated of the gossip in town as you hear it.
"Too early to rule him out" normally means "We'll rule him out later". I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.
The thing is, if they wanted to retire him they would have done so by now. There are still 10 weeks or so left of the breeding season, so they'd want to try and get him to the covering shed ASAP. I will let you all know if I hear anything on the grapevine.
Maybe they already have bookings worth more than he could win. There is a definite risk in running him over 10f.
Whilst the setback suffered by the Champion is not welcome news, I am glad that they were up-front with us about it. Hopefully this won’t be the beginning of the end or used as some sort of retirement excuse. I am doubly pleased that this news surfaced promptly as I was planning on booking a train ticket for Newbury early to get it cheaper (£70 more than a month in advance is hardly cheap). Now I can wait until nearer the race to see who is likely to be showing up before deciding whether it is worth the expense.
Hope we do get to see him run again, like many, i was suprised they kept him in training but glad and now i hope he get's to the track safe and well and mops up all he can.
Yeah I agree, it is nice the see that his owner wants to send him around again. If he'd been mine though, I'd have retired him after the Guineas. I think he's just too valuable to risk. But as I have nothing to lose, I want to see him again. He's one hell of a horse.
I can't believe any talk of him going to cover mares this year. There's only 9 weeks left, he'd cover a limited book of mares. My read is that he injured himself and they are being ultra careful, and who wouldn't be in their situation? But I'm sure they want him back on the course even if it's not until June/July. Now if it was Coolmore...........
I reckon he definitely wont run in the Lockinge but they would be hoping to get him to Royal Ascot I would think.
