RACING:Frankel, who was unbeaten in his 14-race career, was the undoubted star of the 2012 Flat season, writes BRIAN O'CONNOR
Shane Fetherstonhaugh knows the way the media works. His late father, Brian, was racing correspondent in the now defunct Irish Press. Accompanying his Dad to the races, he learned early that working behind-the-scenes is no route to headlines. Except, of course, when that work involves Frankel.
Every day for the last two years, the 35-year-old from Skerries worked with a horse that, within a sport acutely aware of its history, will forever define 2012.
Fetherstonhaugh’s credentials as a work-rider had already been impressive. He guided the combustible 2005 Derby hero Motivator during morning workouts when coarse hands could have left Epsom glory behind forever on a cold Newmarket gallop.
There was also the top-class filly Midday. But, as always, Frankel was different: very, very different.
When Frankie Dettori’s drugs ban is forgotten, the outcry over how the JP McManus’s Gold Cup winner Synchronized got fatally injured in the Grand National becomes a footnote, and Camelot’s foiled Triple Crown bid is reduced to a curio, Frankel will still define 2012.
There are some who will argue he will define the breed for decades to come. Unbeaten in 14 starts, including 10 Group One’s, the image of Frankel’s devastating power in both Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes and York’s Juddmonte International in particular, resolutely places him among the pantheon of select names that shape our view of equine excellence.
With hindsight, though, comes a sense of inevitability about it all that never existed day-to-day.
Trainer Henry Cecil was justifiably lauded for master-minding a perfect career and Tom Queally got the glory of steering the great horse on the track.
But both never failed to emphasise Fetherstonhaugh’s role in every morning faultlessly working on the impulsive instincts that could have reduced Frankel to yet another burnt-out morning glory.
“He was never that bad,” his old friend remembers now that Frankel is retired, reputation established forever, to a life of luxury at stud. “He was simply quite an exuberant horse that always wanted to please. And he was strong. The whole idea was to keep a lid on him. I’m nine and a half stone. He’s half a ton. There was only ever going to be one winner if it became a fight.”
The horsemanship required to emerge as boss in the mysterious telepathy that fizzes back and forth through the reins can be a priceless yet generally unrecognised element in the making of a champion.
But the public fascination with Frankel meant Featherstonhaugh became a regular name in the media circus that accompanied the great champion. It was a part of the gig the Dubliner wasn’t sure about at first, but it didn’t become a problem.
“The boss (Cecil) has been very good about making us all feel involved so I haven’t been too bothered by it all,” he says. “I’m the same as anyone: it’s nice to get a pat on the back sometimes.”
The familiarity with the requirements of the media game his father practised so well came in handy too. Brian Featherstonhaugh died on Christmas Eve 1995, aged just 50. His love for the old game would have seen him relish his son’s daily position on top of a genuinely great racehorse, the likes of which are rarely seen.
“It’s the time of year now when the yearlings are coming in and the dream is to find another good one. That’s what keeps you going. You’re starting all over again, But I don’t imagine there’ll ever be anything like Frankel,” Featherstonhaugh admits.
The closest anything came to resonating with the former superstar in 2012 was the champion juvenile Dawn Approach who wound up an unbeaten season that began in March with a Dewhurst Stakes victory in October that makes him the Guineas favourite for 2013.
Camelot won the 2012 Guineas, and two Derbies, yet will be back for a four-year-old campaign with something to prove. Clearly best of a mediocre crop of three-year-olds, Aidan O’Brien resolutely maintains the Montjeu colt is the best he has had through his hands.
O’Brien’s 19-year-old son Joseph was crowned champion jockey in Ireland. The only rider that can eyeball the near six foot teenager in the jockey’s room, Richard Hughes, won the title in Britain.
Davy Russell landed a first jump jockeys championship in Ireland but the branch of the sport that defines itself by Cheltenham success had a sobering festival this time with just five winners, compared to the previous year’s record tally of 13.
However, the emergence of young chasing stars such as Sir Des Champs and Flemenstar, the latter accompanied by his colourful trainer Peter Casey, provide ample hopes in a division that saw the great Kauto Star retired in the autumn.
Already the exciting English-trained Sprinter Sacre is being nominated as a potential replacement for Kauto Star. If or when a horse is ever nominated as capable of filling Frankel’s shoes, it will be worth going a long way to see him.
