Juddmonte International preview: Memories of Frankel as City Of Troy's big day looms
By Simon Holt
07:23 · WED August 21, 2024
Simon Holt can't help but recall the day Frankel left the mouths of onlookers gaping in the build-up to this year's exciting edition of the Juddmonte International at York.
FOR those who were fortunate to witness the phenomenon 12 years ago, each renewal of Wednesday's Juddmonte International at York will act as a reminder of a truly exceptional racehorse and one of the most memorable day's racing anyone could possibly hope to enjoy.
It was, of course, the day that Frankel galloped a further two-and-a-half furlongs into equine immortality when, over the longest distance hitherto encountered, he cruised home practically on the bridle and made Farrh and St Nicholas Abbey look like selling platers.
The emotion of the day was only heightened by the pale and ailing figure of the great horse's legendary trainer Sir Henry Cecil who, dressed soberly in a dark suit and black hat, received as big an ovation after the race as the horse who he transformed from a 2000 Guineas-winning tearaway into a totally professional superstar.
Interviewed afterwards, having consumed two lobsters for lunch despite suffering from stomach cancer, Cecil whispered: "He's the best we've ever seen."
There can be little doubt that it was York's greatest day and an occasion when it was a huge privilege to be in the commentary box.
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In the car park before racing, there were some new faces to the Ebor meeting. Jumps trainer Henry Daly, better known for sending out winners at Ludlow and Bangor, was there with his children.
"I didn't want them to miss this," he told me.
It was one of those days when the crowd hummed like bees and, in the moments leading up to the race, the murmur of anticipation was almost overwhelming.
When the field turned for home, Frankel was quite some way back under Tom Queally but that changed very quickly.
Moving up close to the stands rail, he literally cruised alongside the hard-ridden St Nicholas Abbey before being only momentarily shaken up to stretch clear of Farhh who grabbed second close home.
Frankel's four-time Group One winning stable companion, Twice Over, was beaten 13 lengths into fourth.
The ease with which he coped with a mile, two-and-a-half furlongs led to suggestions that the extra distance of the Arc would be no problem, but the Champion Stakes had always been the plan and, despite having to fight hard to beat Cirrus Des Aigles and Nathaniel in the mud at Ascot, he retired unbeaten in mid-October.
But it wasn't just about a career of 14 stunning wins and ten Group Ones, but what some of Frankel's victims also achieved.
'Cirrus' would win another four Group Ones, Farhh won the Lockinge and Champion Stakes the following season and St Nicholas Abbey added a Sheema Classic and a third Coronation Cup.
Excelebration was Frankel's whipping boy and couldn't beat him in five clashes, including when thrashed 11 lengths in the Queen Anne, but he was also a winner of the Prix du Moulin, the Jacques le Marois and the Queen Elizabeth 11 Stakes.
Canford Cliffs, a six-time Group One winner, was beaten five lengths by Frankel in the Sussex Stakes and Nathaniel, the horse he beat on his debut in probably the best maiden race ever run at Newmarket on August 13, 2010, won the King George and Coral-Eclipse.
Talk about form boosts.
It is quite enough to expect a horse like Frankel in any lifetime but, 12 years on, the sport could do with another headline act.
They don't come along very often and, subjectively, any list of horses who came close to the highest bar in my memory (since the early-70s) would only include Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Dancing Brave, Montjeu and Sea The Stars as well as Frankel among the colts while Enable and the extraordinary French fillies Miesque, Treve, Goldikova, and Zarkava were also outstanding.
None of these were trained by Aidan O'Brien and, while arguable to say so, it's hard to think of an O'Brien-trained horse who you might call an outstanding champion on the level of the aforementioned luminaries for all the merits of Galileo, Rock Of Gibraltar, Giants Causeway, Yeats, Australia, Camelot, Minding, Found and a host of others.
After the Derby in June, it looked like City Of Troy could be the one to change all that but, after a workmanlike win in the Coral-Eclipse, he has a bit to prove if he's to justify top billing and likely odds-on favouritism on Wednesday.
Perhaps the Sandown performance was better than it looked on soft ground connections felt was against him. Al Riffa, the runner-up, has since won a Group One in Germany and fourth-placed See The Fire ran a blinder when narrowly denied in the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood.
There is certainly a touch of brilliance about him, particularly in the way he seems to lengthen at the end of his races when the strides of others are shortening.
This year's Juddmonte International looks really competitive and, given the larger than usual field, one senses that trainers believe City Of Troy could be vulnerable.
The likes of Calandagan, the six-length winner of the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot, old rival Ambiente Friendly (back in trip), course specialist Alflaila and course and distance winner Bluestocking are all talented rivals.
Durezza, from Japan, has won five times in a country which boasts outstanding equine talent.
A big performance is needed. He must beat them and beat them well.
And, if City Of Troy is to become the superstar that his trainer believes him to be - and maybe the best he has ever trained - he will have to keep winning until the end of the year.
Anything less will not be enough to warrant comparisons with the best, let alone the greatest of them all.
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