Category: Horses

Bred and owned by the late Khalid Abdullah and trained by the late Sir Henry Cecil, Frankel was officially the greatest racehorse of all time. He was retired from racing in October, 2012, unbeaten in all 14 races, including ten at Group 1 level, with an official rating of 140. While it should be noted that, at the time of writing, the unbeaten 3-year-old Sea The Stars colt Baaeed is rated 125, 2lb higher than Frankel at the equivalent stage of his career, no other horse since has been worth mentioning in the same breath.

Strictly speaking, the horse that came closest to beating Frankel, in terms of the official winning distance, was Nathaniel, who was beaten just half a length when both horses made their racecourse debuts, as two-year-olds, in a maiden stakes races over 7 furlongs at Newmarket in August, 2010. However, despite the narrow winning margin, Frankel only had to be shaken up by jockey Tom Queally to win readily and, in truth, never looked in any real danger of defeat.

However, that was by no means the case on the third start of his three-year-old campaign, in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Fresh from a 6-length win in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, where he set blistering early fractions, Frankel proved more amenable to restraint at Ascot. Nevertheless, when asked for an effort, his natural exuberance took over and he soon strode clear, only for his exertions to take their toll close home. At the line, Frankel was all out to hold Zoffany by an ever-diminishing three-quarters of a length.

Every generation of racehorses produces it own outstanding performers but, from time to time, horses capture the public imagination in a way that transcends generations and achieve almost legendary status. Arkle, for example, is best remembered for winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup three years running in 1964, 1965 and 1966, but has since become the benchmark against which every steeplechaser is measured. Likewise, in the sphere of National Hunt racing, Red Rum, who won the Grand National in 1973, 1974 and 1977, as well as finishing second in 1975 and 1976, has also gained ‘immortality’.

On the Flat, Dancing Brave, who won the 2,000 Guineas, Coral-Eclipse, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1986 – and should have won the Derby, in the eyes of many observers – falls into the same category. So, too, does Frankel, who was unbeaten in all 14 races, including ten at the highest, Group One level and was the first horse for 60 years to be a champion at two, three and four years. On the other side of the Atlantic, Secretariat, nicknamed ‘Big Red’, became the first horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown in 1973; his 31-length demolition of the opposition in the Belmont Stakes remains one of the best performances ever seen on a racecourse.

In horse racing, blinkers are one of the most commonly used types of headgear. Standard blinkers consist of pair of fabric, leather or plastic cups positioned, one either side, on a headpiece. The cups are placed next to the horse’s eyes with the intention of restricting its field of vision to the rear and, in some cases, to the side. Naturally, horses have a 275° field of vision, such that they can be easily distracted or upset by events on either side or behind them. Thus, by restricting the field of vision – to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the design of the blinkers – trainers hope to encourage a horse to focus on looking, and moving, forward and thereby improve its racecourse performance.

So-called ‘French’ blinkers, also known as ‘cheek pieces’, are less restrictive than standard blinkers, but serve a similar purpose. They consist of strips of sheepskin, which are attached to the straps on either side of a horse’s bridle and restrict how much the horse can see behind it. Blinkers and cheek pieces must be declared overnight and horses wearing these types of headgear can be identified by a small letter ‘b’, or ‘c’, next to the their names on a racecard.