Frankel's Form

[Bustino74]

Bit unfair pN. He doesn't in this case only mention BG. I posted it mainly because it's amusing. LW may also be right in much of what he says; we all need to cut the hyperbole. I'd add Sea the Stars as another Frankel myself. He just wasn't such a flashy winner.

One glaring problem with Frankel is he never came up against a horse of Mill Reef's quality. And even the most rabid Mill Reef fans never thought taking on BG again would ever be easy.

 

[Ron]

An amusing open letter to Tony Morris from Laurie Williamson in the RP a few weeks back.

Reading Tony Morris’s usually excellent column in the Racing Post (August 18) and listening to some of the television pundits lately is enough to make a devoted racing fan want to book a one-way ticket to Switzerland to end it all.
“Never see his like again” and “not in my lifetime” figure prominently and regularly in their summations. Oh dear, oh dear, for goodness sake cheer up. Being older than most of you let me offer you some reassurance.
I have been fortunate to see at least 5 Frankels in my lifetime, so the new coming is probably just around the corner. Nijinsky, Brigadier Gerard, Mill Reef and Dancing Brave would all have won and dispatched the same opposition with exactly the same aplomb.
Nothing Frankel achieved in his 14 races would have been outside the compass of these great champions. I cannot say the same is true should the boot be on the other foot though.
Neither I nor even Frankel’s connections, by their actions, confidently claim he would win the Derby, St Leger, King George or Arc, as his predecessors did in their pomp.
So don’t worry unduly Tony. After all you have your lovely granddaughter Rosie to think about now and Frankel’s reputation to defend.
At three years I guess Rosie will not have seen Frankel strut his stuff, but the day may well come when she rushes back from the races to visit you at Morris Towers.
“Grandad Tony”, she dashes in and cries. “Grandad Tony, I have just seen the greatest racehorse ever.”
“No you haven’t my dear,” you calmly reply. “That is Frankel”.
“Frankel, Grandad Tony? I remember his name. Did he win the Derby?”
“No my dear,” you reply.
“Did he win the Arc Grandad?” She enquires , buzzing with curiosity.
“No my dear”.
“Did he beat the winners of the Derby and the Arc, Grandad?” Rosie asks, growing increasingly cautious and suspicious.
“No my dear” is the curt reply from a now-subdued Grandad Tony.
“Oh,” says Rosie, trying hard to be positive, “he must have been very fast then Grandad and broke lots of course records?”
“No my dear, he didn’t.”
“Oh Grandad Tony. You are funny!”


Laurie Williamson was Brigadier Gerard’s lad.

I'm on the ferry home and this was the first thing I read.

 

[Ron]

PS. Don't forget the invincible Ribot

 

[PNkt]

It probably was a little unkind of me. I'll blame the hormones

 

[Reebok]

Sea Bird - all day long

Or was it Sea Pigeon ........................??

Or even Sea Biscuit ..........................??

That's the trouble with getting old - you've Sea Nit all before

 

[Bluesky9]

I don't think most sensible race watchers (I would hope Laurie would come under such a term) would ever really imagine any horse the best ever for one simple reason, you have to qualify it by stating at what? and unless you have done that it's all a bit childish. Arkle was in no way the best horse ever should we be talking about a mile at Newmarket but 3 miles around Cheltenham, possibly. This is the problem, we must state the best horse at what and in my opinion we could make one hell of a strong case for Frankel being the best miler ever seen, with perhaps the Brigadier the closest comparison. It would however be difficult to state Frankel the best horse ever at any other distance, and this just makes it clear that there does need qualification of what you are measuring as to just say HORSE is insensible.

Frankel even manages to get compared to Arc Winners but he never once raced over that distance so there is no comparison possible, there is clearly only debate possible over a mile with regard Frankel. The other point Laurie makes is that those others would have seen off the same opposition with the same aplomb. Unless he imagines each of them to have raced in some golden era it's clearly not true, see how many horses of note were down the field in their victories. Princess has recorded Frankel's form very openly and it is impressive, in fact when you remember the aplomb with which he would dispatch Excelebration and then you would watch Excelebration do the same in Group 1's himself it's hard to find fault with the form. If you play back all the respective Guineas winners no one did it with the same aplomb at all. My point is that it is of course always opinion with regard such debates and there is no definitive answer so opinion is all it can be, but we really need be a little more established in what we are trying to measure within the debate than Laurie.

I would be very interested to see some of the other names mentioned by Laurie have their form laid out in a similar manner to How Princess has displayed Frankels.

 

[OddDog]

I remember Toppy saying he watched Frankel's victory in the Juddmonte, then rewatched it imagining Frankel wasn't there. The result, without Frankel, would have been a thrilling finish fought out betwean St Nicholas Abbey and Farhh with the pair well clear of Twice Over and Sri Putra. That's 2 horses rated 124 fighting it out and the 3rd Twice Over 6 lengths back. Then you replay it again and recognise Frankel has gone 7 lengths clear of SNA and Farhh without coming off the bridle. Incredible.

 

[Bustino74]

Sorry. I saw it from the perspective of some people taking it alkl a bit seriously. It wasn't a poke at Frankel who was a brilliant horse. But maybe it's a long time since we've had anything near it win in the style of Frankel.
Frankel was amazing but like most horses including Nijinsky and Brigadier Gerard etc. has some things that don't quite fit. They are only horses.

 

[Bluesky9]

I think he really was incredible Oddy, I know we should never take the manner of victory as the only thing of significance and Sea the Stars was certainly better than his winning margins may suggest, but the way Frankel did it time and time again was unique in my racing lifetime.