Frankel vs Black Caviar – What They Share

Geoff Lester reports that when the dust had settled at Newbury last Saturday racing professionals were unanimous in their praise of the mighty Frankel. He had taken his unbeaten record to 10 with another demolition job in the Gr 1 Lockinge Stakes and was lauded to the skies, the verdict of most being “he is the best we have seen”.

You would certainly have to put Frankel right up there with the legendary Brigadier Gerard, who won 15 of his 16 races in the 1980s and it is just a shame that a head-on collision with the remarkable Australian mare Black Caviar is now “unlikely”.

Black Caviar, unbeaten in 21 races, will shortly be on her way to Britain but, whereas Frankel runs next in the Queen Anne Stakes on the opening day of Royal Ascot, the Aussie superstar waits for the Diamond Jubilee Stakes on the Saturday.

Black Caviar will then take in the July Cup at Newmarket, so the one and only possibility of a clash between the king and queen of thoroughbred racing is Glorious Goodwood and the Sussex Stakes on 1 August, but that 1600m could stretch the mare from Down Under – and by then she could well be back in the Southern Hemisphere.

However, we can enjoy both for what they are – two special horses who are streets ahead of their contemporaries.

This was arguably Frankel’s finest performance yet. True, the way he blitzed the opposition in last year’s 2000 Guineas will live long in the memory. But he was like a runaway train at Newmarket, whereas now Henry Cecil, who has trained him brilliantly, has got him to learn to relax and reserve the after-burner for the end of his races.

Excelebration, now with Aidan O’Brien, was beaten by Frankel for the fourth time, with the winning margin extended to five lengths.

Now that Frankel is more amenable, connections can pursue their wish to try him over 2000m in the second half of the season, with either the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown or the Juddmonte International – a race the colt’s owner, Khalid Abdullah, sponsors – at York being the likely targets.

Frankel was given the highest Time Form Rating last year of 136, with the mare Black Caviar behind him at 132.

Fascinating that two of the world’s best racehorses bred at each end of the globe share common ground in their pedigrees, and the KZN connection prolific. That is the beauty of the Thoroughbred. The common denominator between these two great horses is Northern Dancer and his sons, Danzig, Nijinsky II and Sadler’s Wells.

Frankel is by world-champion sire standing at Coolmore Stud, Galileo (himself a son of the great Sadler’s Wells who in turn is the sire of our very own King Of Kings), who of course is the sire of Summerhill Stud’s raised and grazed champion mare Igugu(AUS), voted Equus Horse-Of-The-Year in 2011. Frankel, out of the mare named Kind, is yet again proof of the Danehill (by Danzig) success story. Kind’s maternal grandsire is Rainbow Quest – the sire of our very own exciting Spectrum at Yellow Star Stud.

KZN stands six sons of Danehill at various farms around the province, as well as Rocky Street(AUS), a grandson of the Danehill-sired Rock Of Gibraltar.

Black Caviar’s pedigree reveals that she is a grand-daughter of Royal Academy (a son of Nijinsky II and the maternal grandsire of another stallion at Middlefield, Spanish Harlem – also by Danehill) through her sire, and in-bred to Vain (who interestingly also appears in the dam-line of Rocky Street, also residing at Middlefield Stud). Green Desert (by Danzig), the maternal grandsire of our champion KZN stallion Kahal, makes an appearance in her dam-line too.

Regardless of whether a race between the two of these great horses transpires, the world watches each race they compete in with eager anticipation.

Information courtesy www.tabnews.co.za