Frankel - 14 facts on a great career

 
Michael Cooper20 October 2012

All eyes will be on Ascot tomorrow as the world's best horse Frankel bids to end his incredible career with a 14th straight win. Michael Cooper sends him on his way with 14 facts about his career.

74½

lengths is the incredible aggregate distance by which Frankel has won his 13 races. That equates to roughly 600ft or 12 double-decker buses. So, it really is a case of Frankel first, the rest nowhere.

147

rating by form expert Timeform after his stunning victory in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot is the highest recorded by the racing analyst in 64 years. That puts him clear of such greats as Derby and Arc winner Sea Bird (145) and the brilliant milers Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel (both 144).

2000 Guineas

day last year saw Frankel put up one of the most astonishing performances in a Classic race. He immediately left his rivals trailing and at one stage was 15 lengths clear of his field. It was genuinely jaw dropping.

12.875 miles

have been covered by the colt in his gallop to glory on the racecourse. But frankly, he has hardly had to break sweat compared to Aintree legend Red Rum, who raced 100 times and ran 22.5 miles in his five Grand Nationals.

1111111111111

is what Frankel’s career form looks like on paper. He won four times as a two-year-old, five as a three-year-old and is bidding for his fifth win at four. But that’s some way short of Camarero, a Puerto Rico-based horse who won 56 in a row in the mid-1950s.

43mph

is the top speed Frankel clocked when winning over a mile at Goodwood this summer. That’s going some, since the average winning speed in five-furlong sprint races is 37.5mph.

£100 MILLION

is Frankel’s eye-popping value as a future stallion — that record-breaking figure makes him worth nearly 14 times his weight in gold. Cirrus Des Aigles, his main rival in tomorrow’s Champion Stakes at Ascot, is worthless in breeding terms because he is a gelding!

8

British Champions Series races have been won by Frankel, who is bidding to make it No9 tomorrow. Thirteen horses have managed to win just two races in the series, which shows just how far ahead of his rivals he is.

1-20

is the ultra-skinny price Frankel returned when winning the Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood for an historic second time. He has been odds-against only once in 13 races and has gone off at 1-10 on two of his past three starts. So you don’t get rich backing him.

£2,261,072

in prize money has been won by the horse. If he is successful again tomorrow, he’ll collect another £737,230, taking him almost to the £3million mark. Poor old Kauto Star, the champion jumps horse, has had to run 41 times to earn that sort of money.

32,000

racegoers are expected to bid farewell to Frankel tomorrow. They are the lucky ones, since the Members’ Enclosure at Ascot sold out straight after tickets went on sale, well over a month before British Champions Day.

shoe size makes Frankel’s front feet the largest in trainer Sir Henry Cecil’s stable. Well, you wouldn’t expect anything less . . .

5

is the number of times that Excelebration, a champion racehorse in his own right, has been beaten by Frankel. The last was an 11-length defeat at Royal Ascot this summer but the humbled horse did celebrate next time, winning a big event in France.

23lbs

of Canadian oats — or the equivalent of a mammoth 600 Weetabix biscuits — are chomped by the horse every day, surely making him the hungriest inmate at Cecil’s Warren Place yard.

If you can’t make it to Ascot tomorrow, watch the great horse’s final race on BBC1 because there really hasn’t been anything like him before. In fact he’s one in a million.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in