Frankel's Juddmonte International: "I don't think anyone who was there will ever forget it"

[Music] it's year since one of the most incredible forces in the history of York racecourse let alone the Ybor week itself it came caste of course of this horse Frankel in the 2012 German international it was a day at both brilliance and emotion here at the entrance of your race course with the Sir Henry Cecil wrought-iron gates in the background Frankel himself is immortalized in bronze [Applause] and an identical statue stands just here in the beautiful gardens at BAM stood molestered just outside Newmarket and this is where we've come to reminisce about this horse and that outstanding performance on the names my five years ago now that judgement International back in 2012 at the Frankel one taking his winning streak to 13 from 13 stepping up in trip how well do you remember the build-up to that race how long have you got I I remember it intimately from the moment I woke up by five o'clock in the morning looking out of the window at home and thinking this could be a day things go badly I could lose both jobs but it was your first year as chair but if that was my first year as chairman but rarely and truly I think that build-up because of so many conflicting not conflicting but adjoining emotions in terms of bringing the great horse to York Henry's Henry Cecil's health the fact that he was stepping up to a mile a quarter for the first time the X the weight of expectation was just huge enormous that day the crowd the crowd were just buzzing it was like I've never I've been lucky enough to go to some extraordinary sporting events but Woolf this took your breath away in every way lots of great horses have won the job Montana tour it was the Benson & Hedges a long time ago but I don't think anyone who was there the day Francoeur won the judgement will ever forget it as a sort of I mean we've seen Frankel every trainer in Newmarket had seen Henry Train Franco it was a very boisterous very strong adult two-year-old ooh and Henry harnessed him brilliantly and all of us were seeing this horse and he did the same thing most days as a routine up Warren Hill and we saw Henry as well who was a picture of health and then started to deteriorate and then after his chemo he looked much better and seemed much more positive and he was a glass-half-full man Henry during his illness or the bits we saw anyway and then he did deteriorate and then Frankel came along and we had this great huge sort of stellar year as a three-year-old because he'd been so brilliant over the mile 12 from 12 and there aren't enough superlatives to describe what he did what was the sort of the nervous sort of position thinking about taking that step into the unknown Henry was made all the all the calls he and his judgment was was absolutely unfailing and always straightforward he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the horse and so we had great confidence and of course the horse himself gave us that extraordinary feeling every time he set foot on the gallops he saw things you rarely rarely ever see but not but on a regular basis and so after he'd won so well it asketh in that the queen and he sort of bolted up you know you had to be you had to be pretty confident that you'd get a man a quarter without much problem it was a day where you can look back one in a huge amount of satisfaction in the enjoyment I remember the morning of the day remember this was the first time that Frankel had raced over a mile and a quarter and it wasn't sure he would stay so there was a lot of pressure of you call it that's a lot of anticipation a lot of excitement about the prospect of the race and of course he had a huge lead talented field lining up against him soon Nicholas Abbey far who both went on to subsequently win group ones aplenty the way he demolished that field the way he did it in such style so Henry sessile obviously in failing health but determined to be here here I'm Prince Khalid Abdullah here so it was a tremendous day and one that lived long in the memory of not just me in the team but everyone who is here that day you mentioned Sir Henry Cecil who hadn't been at Goodwood for the Sussex takes earlier earlier that season or a month before and he was undergoing his treatment how how important was was that day to him to know that it was in the diary that he wanted to be there I think it was paramount I remember he just I remember sitting with him in his office a warm place and he just had a bout of chemo and he looked simply dreadful I mean just awful as everyone could see and I said to him you don't have to come to York you know you've your workers your work is done on the horse so it's not it you know Prince Khalid would would have no worries if he if he didn't want to come and he said I'm coming and he was he was so driven and so determined everything that he he did with his chemotherapy was around Frankel in other words Frankel's work when he was working he would time it so it was all in sync with that so there was no interruption and he could be there and his his sort of frailty alongside Frankel's energy was was a strange and extraordinary juxtaposition and then when he came to the job mont as a four year old when henry was clearly clearly unwell he looked a thousand and it was sad to see him remember that black hats and he looked like a stick on legs and his horse and clearly knew that his trainer was in trouble for his master was in trouble and he produced the most imperious performance first time atom on the quarter and it was very very moving is like a it was like a film you could you know here's a great trainer it's been a fantastic trainer for long before you were born and he at the twilight of his life this horse comes along which is clearly different to anything else he's trained he concentrated solely on him I'm not no disrespect to the other also had lots of big winners but frank'll was his he was the one he was taking with him and that's what made it such a story in that day at York obviously Teddy grim thoughts chairman at York he is Scarlet's advisor it just all fitted well in the reception he goes and showed why I'm such a proud Yorkshire it just take me back to the race because when he stepped into the unknown and up that extra quarter a mile in trip and he put the afterburners on and seemed to glide across that ground and quickened up and I'll never forget the noise from the crowd that day it was unlike anything I'd certainly ever heard at York and he has the Nicholas Abbey far in behind who serious horses but the way that he disposed of that field was that the best you ever saw him notwithstanding the fact that the Queen Anne was a an 11 length win this was 7 was that the most impressive performance of the career all the guineas I think the sort of important thing on that day I remember as we were leaving the paddock John magnet came up to me and said our boys were going to have two men in front they're going to be setting in you know a good play sensible good sensible pace there'd be no funny business and it was sort of it was a it was it was a sort of a decent a decent thing to say and that indeed is what happened his is two horses set up set up the pace for some Nicholas Abbey and I was always when you saw Frankel traveling you never really had that much worry because Tom sat on him and and and with a nice good rein on him and his his sort of good easy stride and I think when he when they sort of turned round and into the state into the straight and he was still traveling well and they they veered over to almost the stand side my only worry was that he might not he might he might just get shot in as they as they came across it because they came across but he is his move were so pure and smooth that for one moment there were it was almost like it was in in slow motion or the others were in slow motion and Franco was just sort of easing through the gears and and and I think it was at that stage that the crowd really got it and that's what they come to see of course and the horse horse then did it in his his his fantastic style that way it was it was it was but I think it was the emotion of it that was rarely so intense because of the crowd the crowd and Henry you yourself I think we're on record at the time saying that Henry had such a great affinity with the York Race Course goers as they did with him it was sort of reciprocated on there's no doubt about that I think they were sort of I think the joy of having a horse like Frankel and having him been trained by Henry it was was that it it increased increased the love of boats I think and I always said one wouldn't have been the same without the other it was a very important day though while we all celebrated what he did on the track you and the team here had to had to put up with him withstand and incorporate 50% higher crowd than that day the year before I mean that horse was box-office yeah hugely box-office and the catering team tell the story that usually when the racing going on people are still in the bars and still around the racecourse there was no one in the bars for that race everyone was getting a vantage point to see the race itself you know and as you say the paddock was packed not necessarily with the connections to the winner but I think every Yorkshire trainer was here to see to see Frankel and you know it was a tremendous story the story lives on of course in his progeny and we've been delighted to see his sons and daughters come back to the neighs Mar sense and of course America lies din Franco statue at the the main entrance to the racecourse he was so headstrong and wanted to get on with things but he did he save it for the race course and was calm enough beforehand I think that was I think it was a combination of several sort of important factors Shane Featherston hormone Tom Cooley and most importantly Henry they they they taught him taught him to settle at home it was a long and gradual process to have to have those sort of memories and it's it's it's strange because it it feels like absolutely yesterday

Channel: Racing TV

Views: 45,042

Rating: 4.7764707 out of 5

Keywords: uk, racing uk horse sport, UK, horseracing, Horse Racing, racing uk, racing tv, Frankel, race, horse sport, horse, Frankel International Memories, racing, jockey, Racing, juddmonte international, Grimthorpe, Henry Cecil

Id: Qo9ZKVBpxQc

Length: 13min 57sec (837 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 09 2018