QIPCO British Champions Day 2012 Media Guide - Ascot Racecourse

• Frankel’s owner-trainer-jockey combination of Khalid Abdulla, Sir Henry Cecil
and Tom Queally are seeking their third QIPCO Champion Stakes victory in four
years having won the race in 2009 and 2010, when it was run at Newmarket, with
Twice Over.
• Frankel is valued at a record-breaking £100 million as a future stallion and is
expected to command a covering fee of around £100,000. Conversely his biggest
rival in the QIPCO Champion Stakes, the winner of the race last year, Cirrus des
Aigles, is worthless in breeding terms as he has been gelded.
• Frankel’s life began in box number five of the Foaling Unit at Banstead Manor
Stud in Newmarket, Suffolk, where he was born at 11.40pm on 11 February
2008. He weighed 123lb (8 stone 11lbs) – a bit heavier than a Flat jockey. His
height now is 163.8cm or 16hh 1/2 inch.
• He was named after one of the greatest American trainers of all time, Bobby
Frankel, who died in November 2009 and who trained very successfully for
Frankel’s owner, Khalid Abdulla.
• He went into training with Sir Henry Cecil on 14 January 2010, having first
completed his pre-training in Ireland.
• When Frankel arrived at Sir Henry’s Newmarket yard, he went into one of the
barns used for yearlings. Towards the middle of his two-year-old career, he was
moved to a “bigger and better” box. However, he did not like it and would not
settle, so had to be moved back. The team attempted to move him again, later in
the year, but the same thing happened. He clearly prefers his original box, which
now boasts CCTV – a must when stabling a horse of such value.
• He eats three feeds each day and snacks on English hay – older horses usually
eat American hay, but this proved a little too rich for Frankel. For his main feed,
he eats corn, alfalfa chaff and bran, and likes a carrot treat. He also has a
calcium supplement to keep his bones in good shape. He eats more than any
other horse in the yard – about 23lbs of Canadian oats per day, which is the
equivalent of approximately 600 Weetabix biscuits.
• He has the largest feet in Sir Henry Cecil’s yard and wears size 7½ shoes in front
and size 7 behind.
• He is looked after by a small team of people, consisting of stable lad, Sandeep
Gauravaram, head girl, Dee Deacon, work rider, Shane Fetherstonhaugh, vet,
Charlie Smith, and farrier, Stephen Kielt, all of whom are overseen by assistant
trainer, Mike Marshall, and Sir Henry Cecil himself. They describe Frankel as a
very inquisitive character who always likes to know what is going on, adding that
he is naturally competitive and knows that he is something special.
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