Frankel: The Greatest Racehorse of All Time and the Sport That Made Him

by Simon Cooper

Overview

In horse racing greatness is defined by speed. Being the second fastest counts for little. You have to win. And win. And keep winning until every challenger of your generation is put to the sword. Of the twelve horses lined up on Newmarket Heath that 2011 day, one would do just that. And more. To become the greatest racehorse that has ever lived.

Frankel was born on 11 February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents’ sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse’s life, giving readers an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart.

A detailed and fast-paced narrative breathlessly recounts the racing career of the horse who, by his retirement to stud at the age of 4, would be rated the greatest of all time. Cooper weaves the horse’s tale with those of his trainer, battling cancer, the stablehands who coped with his explosive nature, the work rider who tamed him, the the jockey who rode in all fourteen of his races, and the owner who saw his potential from the very beginning. The result is a rich and multifaceted tale of modern horse racing, the lives of everyone involved, human and equine, and the unadulterated glory of winning. And winning everything.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008307073
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	07/27/2021
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Simon Cooper is the Wainwright Prize-winning author of The Otter’s Tale and Life of a Chalkstream. He is also one of the UK's leading chalkstream conservationists. In a former life, Simon worked in the horse-racing industry, so has unprecedented access to the stud farms, stables and racetracks that are integral to Frankel’s story.

Table of Contents

Prologue xi

1 Genetic alchemy 1

2 A certain kindness 19

3 Creation day 33

4 Day 343 49

5 More Irish than English 61

6 The Pick 77

7 In training for training 89

8 A horse by a very special name 99

9 Warren Place 111

10 Getting into his head 125

11 The 6.35 at Newmarket 137

12 Intensive training 151

13 Economical with the actualité 167

14 Winter dreaming 175

15 Leading from the front 191

16 Arise Sir Henry 201

17 Duel on the Downs 209

18 The high-stakes gamble 217

19 Hidden dips 225

20 Flying the standard 237

21 Always summer 243

22 The end of days 255

Epilogue 263

The Newmarket 11

Keeneland to fenland (Maher) 267

A six-figure loss (Dortmund) 271

Last man standing (Man of God) 277

The worst Derby runner ever? (Castlemorris King) 286

Up in the air (Bonita Star) 292

A 99 per cent write-down (Breton Star) 298

The cruellest cut (Colour Vision) 303

All-weather man (Elrasheed) 308

Pinhooked (Lemon Drop Red) 313

Scandal (Genius Beast) 318

Shadow man (Nathaniel) 322

Acknowledgements 329

The Frankel File

Race record 334

Pedigree 338

Timeline 339

Awards 341

Frankel by numbers 343

Bibliography 346

Index 347

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Frankel

‘An imaginative retelling of the legendary story … Cooper paints a complete picture of Frankel, charting his meteoric rise from the first years of his life through to his glorious send-off when winning the Champion Stakes at Ascot … transporting the reader with his vivid descriptions … While he is undoubtedly the star of the show, this book is about so much more than just Frankel … Thanks to Cooper, and his dedication to colouring the blanks in this famous story, we can now know Frankel a little better too’ Racing Post

‘Well-researched and written with an enthusiast’s brio. Moreover, it is utterly engrossing … Frankel’s story is an extraordinary one and Cooper tells it in an easy, compelling style … [He] takes the reader on an equine pilgrimage, all the more thrilling as the object of veneration is still just 12 years old and standing at stud near Newmarket’ The Field

‘Simon Cooper does a sterling job … a wry, amiable guide, Cooper takes intriguing tangents aplenty … his real skill, though, lies in detailing Frankel's day-to-day life’ i newspaper

From the Publisher