This year marks the 10 year anniversary of the remarkable four-year-old campaign of Frankel.
Arguably the greatest thoroughbred racehorse in history, Frankel won all five starts as a four-year-old with his notable performances in 2012 headed by an 11 length win in the Gr1 Queen Anne Stakes and a seven length triumph in the Gr1 Juddmonte International.
The late Sir Henry Cecil with Frankel at Royal Ascot
Champion Sire in Britain/Ireland in 2021, Frankel has proved an outstanding stallion, and he came up with his 100th stakes winner earlier this year when his daughter Emotion captured the British Stallion Studs EBF Chalice Stakes back in July.
Emotion hails from Frankel’s outstanding crop of three-year-olds this season, which has carried all before it in 2022 thus far.
At the time of writing, Frankel had been responsible for eight Gr1 winners with this number including such stellar 3yo’s as Onesto (Grand Prix de Paris), Mckulick (Belmont Oaks), Nashwa (Prix de Diane, Nassau Stakes), Inspiral (Coronation Stakes, Prix Jacques le Marois), Homeless Songs (Irish 1000 Guineas) and Westover (Irish Derby).
The latter became the second son of Frankel in a row to win the Irish Derby, with Frankel’s son Hurricane Lane victorious in the 2021 Irish Derby.
An interesting side note to Frankel’s success is the fine results he has enjoyed with daughters of both Dubawi and Pivotal. The Frankel/Dubawi cross has produced Gr1 winners Adayar, Dream Castle and Homeless Songs (Mckulick is out of a mare by Dubawi’s son, Makfi), while the Frankel/Pivotal cross has already produced five Gr1 winners.
Frankel is responsible for 25 Gr1 winners (he has supplied nearly 30 stakes winners in 2022 alone thus far), and he looks poised for ever increasing success.
The unbeaten champion’s great run of success continued at York last week.
Frankel daughter Alpinista wins the Oaks last Thursday (Pic – Racing TV)
Not only did Frankel’s five-year-old daughter, Alpinista, capture Thursday’s Gr1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks, but his two-year-old son, Chaldean, stamped himself a juvenile of promise when he was victorious in Wednesday’s Gr3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes – a race won previously by such classic winners as Royal Palace, King’s Best, and Rule Of Law.
The Arc bound Alpinista, victorious last time out in the Gr1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, made it five Gr1 wins in a row when landing the 2022 Yorkshire Oaks, with the five-year-old avenging her second place finish in the 2020 Yorkshire Oaks.
Frankel’s four time Gr1 winning son, Cracksman, who hails from the same female line as Alpinista, has made a promising start with his first two-year-olds this season, giving hope that his legendary sire may well go on to become a top-class sire of sires as well. At the time of writing, Cracksman has been responsible for eight first crop winners including Listed Star Stakes winner, Dance In The Grass and the stakes placed Aloa.
Alpinista and Cracksman carry a South African connection -with Alpinista’s Gr1 winning granddam Albanova a full-sister to dual G1 Champion Stakes winner, Alborada, the dam of Alado. Owner Kirsten Rausing has also raced in the Cape for some years.
