2012: four-year-old season
Whilst hitherto Frankel had contested races over no further than a mile (eight furlongs) as a two and three-year-old, his four-year-old campaign was expected to comprise some of the premier ten-furlong middle-distance races in the calendar. In October 2011 Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to Prince Khalid Abdulla, mentioned "the Eclipse and the Juddmonte" as potential targets later in the 2012 season, while it was possible that the horse might contest the Breeders' Cup Mile or Classic at Santa Anita as a final career start.
Cecil said in October 2011 that he believed his charge would improve for another winter and that the horse "will get a mile and a quarter very easily". The Newmarket trainer added: "He's really beginning to grow up. You're going to see a better horse next year and he's pretty good as he is."
Reports surfaced that Frankel had suffered an injury to his off-fore on Wednesday 11 April while working on Racecourse Side in Newmarket. A statement from Juddmonte, the operation of Frankel's owner Khalid Abdullah, read: "He is such an extravagant mover that he hit himself. At this stage the injury looks superficial but he will be kept monitored over the next few days."
Frankel had a scan which came up clear but, due to filling in the injury, a scan for the following week was arranged to arrive at a more definitive diagnosis once that filling had dissipated.
Before this second scan, rumours sparked by TV reports during coverage of the Grand National at Aintree spread that Frankel had been retired. This claim was rejected by Grimthorpe and, later, the second scan showed no damage.
On 25 April, Frankel worked for the first time after incurring his injury and, on 5 May, Frankel took part in a public exercise gallop at Newmarket. He pulled clear of his work companions Bullet Train and Jet Away in the closing stages of the workout in a style which pleased Cecil.
On 19 May, Frankel made his first appearance of the year in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury. Amongst his five rivals was old rival Excelebration, who had since moved to the Ballydoyle stable of Aidan O'Brien from Marco Botti's yard in Newmarket and, as an easy winner of the Gladness Stakes the previous month, had the advantage of race fitness. However, Frankel – always ahead of Excelebration in the race – tracked his pacemaker Bullet Train before moving into the lead two furlongs from the finish, pulling clear to win by five lengths. The Guardian's correspondent described the "aura" surrounding Frankel as "surreal". Cecil was measured in his praise, pointing out that the horse was not at his best and would probably improve as the season progressed.
Cecil subsequently said: "Over the last two seasons Frankel has come on a good deal from his first race and hopefully he will do the same this season. He has strengthened and grown up a great deal mentally. All being well his next start will be at Ascot in either the Queen Anne or the Prince of Wales, the former being my first preference at the moment, but we will see."
On 19 June Frankel started at odds of 1/10 for the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot against a field which included Excelebration and Strong Suit, respectively ranked the equal second and the equal fifth best three-year-old colts in the world by the IFHA in 2011. Frankel took the lead three furlongs from the finish and drew steadily clear to win by eleven lengths from Excelebration. Frankel ran the penultimate furlong in a time of 10.58 seconds, which equates to a top speed of over 42 mph. The Guardian's correspondent described the performance as possibly the greatest in the history of Thoroughbred racing. Timeform responded to the win by raising Frankel's provisional rating to 147, the highest in the organisation's history, two pounds in advance of the 145 recorded in 1965 by Sea-Bird. However the British Horseracing Authority's handicapper, Dominic Gardiner-Hill, was more cautious. He rated the horse at 140, which was still just behind Dancing Brave's all-time record mark of 141. Racing Post gave the performance a rating of 142, the highest in the publication's history, three pounds ahead of Dubai Millennium.
The day after the race, Cecil said that Frankel had lost a shoe towards the end of the contest. "His foot is in a poultice as a precaution but there's no problem and he was out having a pick of grass this morning", he said. Cecil seemed to indicate that the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood followed by the Juddmonte Stakes at York would be Frankel's next two races.
On 1 August Frankel repeated his previous year's victory in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood. Starting at odds of 1/20 against only three rivals, he won by six lengths from Farhh. With this victory, Frankel equalled the record for consecutive European Group 1 victories (seven in a row) set by Rock of Gibraltar, and also became the first horse to win the Sussex Stakes twice.
After the race, Queally said: "Every moment spent on Frankel's back is a special moment. He is amazing and had all the others cooked at halfway. It was a nice prep for his next race. He is a class apart from any other horse around and does it all very easily ... Turning into the straight, I slipped him an inch of rein. You don't have to do much on him. He's so competitive and he has a will to win like no other horse I've ridden."
Lord Grimthorpe, the racing manager to the horse's owner, Khalid Abdullah, said: "There are two obvious races for him, the Juddmonte and the Champion Stakes [Ascot, October 20], but there is a gap of nearly two months between them, and Henry may decide to give him a race in between, possibly something like the Prix du Moulin [Longchamp, September 16]."
On 22 August, Frankel won the Juddmonte International Stakes at York. This race was over 10 furlongs and was the first time that he raced over more than a mile. Consequently, there was much anticipation as to whether he would stay the extra distance. Starting at odds of 1/10 against eight rivals, he barely came off the bridle to win easily by seven lengths from Farhh, who was a nose ahead of four-time Group 1 winner St Nicholas Abbey in third. Most striking, was the dominance Frankel's very high cruising speed gave him, particularly now upped in distance to 10 furlongs. Indeed, TV footage of the aftermath in the Winners' Enclosure, shows Cecil in genuine awe of his equine protégé, running his hands down the horse's back to demonstrate there was hardly a bead of sweat to be found. This was his eighth consecutive European Group 1 victory, breaking the previous record of seven in a row set by Rock of Gibraltar. After the race trainer Cecil said "It's fantastic. It's great for Yorkshire and they deserved to see him." He was attending the racecourse after missing Frankel's previous win due to ill health and said the win made him feel "twenty years better."
Writing a few days after the race, Marcus Armytage said: "Forget ratings, handicappers' assessments or any other method by which you measure one racehorse against another, it is unlikely that the world in either this or any previous generation has ever seen a better racehorse than Frankel ... What makes him unique is his ability to go a top class sprinter's pace over distance ... he is a lightning strike of genetics which may not be repeated for 100 years."
Frankel was expected to have only one more race in his career, and to stand as a stallion from 2013. Having demonstrated at York his ability comfortably to stay ten furlongs, there was speculation that there might be a change to his programme, with his final race being the twelve furlong (mile and a half) Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October. However, on 31 August Lord Grimthorpe said that Frankel's next race would be the Champion Stakes.
On 20 October Frankel won the Champion Stakes at Ascot over ten furlongs. The ground was more testing than he had faced hitherto, being soft, heavy in places, and the colt's participation had been in doubt until Lord Grimthorpe walked the course on the morning of the race and gave the go ahead. In spite of losing several lengths at the start he beat the previous year's victor Cirrus des Aigles by one and three-quarter lengths, with Nathaniel a further two and a half lengths back in third. He had attracted a sell-out crowd of 32,000, who cheered him home from three furlongs out. After the race Prince Khalid Abdullah confirmed that the horse would be retired to stud.
Corine Barande-Barbe, trainer of Cirrus des Aigles, magnanimously said after the race: "It was a great day and it was like a victory to make Frankel gallop." Teddy Grimthorpe commented: "The way everyone has reacted to Frankel and Henry has been one of the great sporting stories of the year if not for many years. It was just brilliant and totally deserved." Queally said: "You never see an F1 car win on anything but tarmac but for him to win on ground like that shows how special he is. There was a bigger crowd at Royal Ascot but this was more intense. I don't know what I would have done if he didn't win." Cecil commented: "He's the best I've ever had, the best I've ever seen. I'd be very surprised if there's ever been anything better."
Amongst the tributes paid to Cecil's training of the horse was an article by Paul Hayward, chief sports writer of the Daily Telegraph, in which he wrote: "Frankel is Cecil's masterwork, the monument he will leave in racing folklore. His patient, shrewd, empathic management of probably Flat racing's all-time finest animal was achieved amid the ravages of chemotherapy and cancer ... From the 2,000 Guineas onwards, Cecil set about modulating Frankel's zest to get him to settle and use his speed more clinically ... It took a while, but by Saturday the world No 1 was so laid-back he fell out of the stalls half-asleep." Hayward quoted Cecil as saying after the race: "I've probably got him too relaxed. It used to be the other way round."
