When Frankel earned the highest rating in Timeform's history

By Timeform

Horse Racing

Sun June 12, 2022 · 3y ago

On the opening day of Royal Ascot in 2012, Frankel put up the greatest performance in Timeform's history, earning a rating of 147 for his astonishing 11-length success in the Queen Anne Stakes. Here's an extract from his essay in 'Racehorses of 2012'.

Frankel was rated 143 at the end of his brilliant three-year-old campaign in which his victories included the Two Thousand Guineas by the widest margin for sixty-five years - giving a performance that made the hairs stand up on the back of the neck - and the Sussex Stakes in which he recorded the widest winning margin for thirty-three.

Keeping a classic winner in training at four does not always meet with the success it deserves - very few top three-year-olds are capable of making more than the normal improvement from three to four as measured by the weight-for-age scale - but such was the impression created by Frankel that there seemed to be every prospect that he would progress again and elevate himself to the top of the all-time rankings.

Eight other three-year-olds in the now-extensive period since the end of World War II had achieved a Timeform rating of 140 or higher but only two of them had remained in training.

Sea-Bird, Tudor Minstrel, the particularly versatile pair Dancing Brave and Sea The Stars, and Shergar and Vaguely Noble were all retired, with only Brigadier Gerard and Mill Reef, both rated 141, continuing their racing careers as four-year-olds. Brigadier Gerard's rating went up to 144 after his career changed gear at four when he recorded top-class performances at a mile (Lockinge, Queen Elizabeth II Stakes), a mile and a quarter (Westbury Stakes, Prince of Wales's Stakes, Eclipse and Champion Stakes) and a mile and a half (the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes).

Mill Reef's rating remained unchanged at four after he won both his races - including the Prix Ganay by ten lengths - before breaking a leg on the gallops.

Of the four other older horses rated at 140 or more by Timeform, Abernant went up from 138 at three to 142 at four, Ribot from 133 to 142, Dubai Millennium from 132 to 140 and Harbinger from 118 to 140. Italian-trained Ribot was the only one of the twelve three-year-olds and four-year-olds who achieved a Timeform rating of 140 or more before Frankel to end his racing career undefeated, recording sixteen straight victories including the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe twice (by three lengths and by six) and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (by five).

Tom Queally and Frankel on the famous Ascot straight course

Read in-depth profiles on Timeform's highest-rated racehorses

Brigadier Gerard won his first fifteen races and went on to end his career with seventeen wins from eighteen starts, recording five separate performances that were rated at 140 or higher on the Timeform scale, all of them, incidentally, at a mile, the Two Thousand Guineas (which he won from Mill Reef, the only time they met), brilliant victories in the Sussex (by five lengths), the Goodwood Mile (by ten) and successive editions of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (by eight lengths and then by six). Like Brigadier Gerard, Frankel recorded performance after performance that emphasised his outstanding merit. His first 140 (or higher) performance came in the Two Thousand Guineas, after which he was rated 142; he ran to the same figure in his first Sussex Stakes and 143 in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, his final race as a three-year-old.

Frankel put up four more performances over 140 in the latest season in the Lockinge, the Queen Anne, the Sussex and the International.

Frankel reappeared at Newbury in May for the JLT Lockinge Stakes after suffering an injury scare when he struck into himself on the gallops a month before the race (BBC TV jumped the gun and announced his retirement during its Grand National coverage).

A scan revealed, however, that Frankel had not damaged the tendon in his off-fore and, when he returned to training after ten days, his connections were always optimistic that he would be ready in time. After putting Frankel through a workout before racing on Two Thousand Guineas day, his trainer announced that `he seems fine now.'

Frankel, who looked to have grown stronger over the winter, had beaten his two main Lockinge rivals before, both of them three times. Those rivals Excelebration and Dubawi Gold had actually met each other four times as three-year-olds, Excelebration coming out on top each time, including when winning the Hungerford Stakes (by six lengths) and the Prix du Moulin. Excelebration had changed stables over the winter and had won his warm-up race for Aidan O'Brien. He started at 100/30, the shortest odds in any of the five races in which he met Frankel during his career, but Frankel was still a 7/2-on shot to retain his unbeaten record.

Frankel produced top form after seven months off the course and won by five lengths and four from Excelebration and Dubawi Gold after tracking his pacemaker and close relation Bullet Train until taking over two furlongs out. Both second and third were patiently ridden and might have finished a little nearer if they had started their challenges from a closer position, though Frankel's outstanding timefigure was itself testament to the fact that the Lockinge was a true test in which neither Excelebration nor Dubawi Gold would have had the slightest chance with Frankel, however they had been ridden.

The plans announced for Frankel involved a move from a mile up to a mile and a quarter, though that was not envisaged until much later in the season, possibly not until the Juddmonte International - a race sponsored by his owner - at York in August.

There were some who became impatient, though, especially after the announcement that Frankel's next race would be at a mile in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, where he met some familiar rivals and was sent off at 10/1-on against ten opponents, only two of whom had also been successful in Group 1 company, Excelebration and the Caulfield Guineas winner Helmet who was having his first start in Britain since being imported from Australia. Frankel delivered the perfect answer to those clamouring for something new.

Instead of beating Excelebration by four and five lengths, he beat him by eleven!

The Queen Anne, which opened the meeting, was only ever going to be about Frankel who, without feeling the full force of the whip, produced a breathtaking performance that stretched his dominance as far as it was manifested in any of his fourteen races.

The rout arguably settled the question about whether he really was the best there has ever been. Always travelling strongly, Frankel went past Bullet Train with less than three furlongs to go, Excelebration staying in touch with him at first before Tom Queally unleashed Frankel, who burst clear from the two-furlong pole and galloped on remorselessly.

Excelebration was four or five lengths in front of the rest until he faltered inside the final furlong, almost certainly paying the penalty for trying to keep up with Frankel and eventually holding on for second by just a neck from Side Glance, with the German-trained challenger Indomito a further length back in fourth, followed by Windsor Palace, Bullet Train, Helmet, Premio Loco, Red Jazz, a well below form Strong Suit and Worthadd.

Excelebration, incidentally, beat Side Glance and Indomito by wide margins when they met again later in the season in Group 1 races that he won.

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