Superstar Frankel achieved another notable milestone in his stud career with his 100th group/graded winner when his two-year-old daughter Lake Victoria won the Gr3 JenningsBet Sweet Solera Stakes on Saturday.
Frankel and his longstanding Groom Rob Bowley (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Frankel is the fastest stallion in history to reach his 100th graded winner, with the unbeaten superstar also matching the record to get his individual 100th stakes winner.
The 16-year-old arrived at his landmark of 100 individual Group winners in the shortest time of any sire, while he matched the record for fastest sire to 100 individual stakes winners with another Juddmonte great, Danehill.
In the process, Frankel joins the likes of his own sire Galileo, Deep Impact, Dubawi, and his broodmare sire Danehill, an elite club indeed.
Champion Sire in both 2021 and 2023, Frankel has another cracking crop of two-year-olds in 2024.
Not only does this crop contain Lake Victoria, it also contains the very exciting Bedtime Story, winner of the Listed Chesham Stakes by nine and a half lengths and winner of the Gr3 Jockey Club Of Turkey Silver Flash Stakes last time out. Frankel is sire of 2023 Silver Flash winner Ylang Ylang, who went on to land the Gr1 bet365 Fillies Mile.
He is also sire of Silver Flash runner up Exactly, and, with a large number of well bred two-year-olds yet to race in 2024, his tally of juvenile stakes winners is sure to increase.
The son of Galileo has now been responsible for 148 stakes winners of which 34 are Gr1 winners. Frankel has built up an excellent record with daughters of Dubawi, with this cross having produced such Gr1 winners as Adayar, Homeless Songs, Mostahdaf, and Dream Castle as well as Gr2 winners With The Moonlight and English Rose.
Coincidentally, Frankel and Dubawi sport very similar statistics, with both super stallions siring 14% stakes winners to foals.
At the time of writing, Frankel had 34 Gr1 winners to his name, while his older counterpart Dubawi had 59 top level Gr1 winners to his name.
Frankel has some way to go to reach his own sire Galileo’s current tally of 378 stakes winners, with Galileo poised on having a remarkable 99 Gr1 winners to his name.
Between them, Frankel’s sire and damsire Danehill have sired well over 700 stakes winners and continue to make their presence felt through their sons and daughters.
Inevitably, Frankel is making his mark as a broodmare sire, with his daughters having produced, among others, 2024 Gr1 Longines Prix De Diane (French Oaks) winner Sparkling Plenty (Kingman).
Sparkling Plenty’s full-brother Noble Truth was the first stakes winner for Frankel as a broodmare sire when he won the Listed Cazoo Flying Scotsman Stakes in 2021, with Noble Truth going on to win the 2022 Gr3 Jersey Stakes.
One can only but speculate as to quite the influence that Frankel will have on the breed in the coming years.
Ed – we will look at our two new Frankel stallions, Frantastic and Sharp Frank, tomorrow.
