Frankel was retired, unbeaten in 14 races, following a convincing 1¾-length victory over Cirrus Des Aigles in the Champion Stakes at Ascot on October 20, 2012. At that point, his trainer, the late Sir Henry Cecil, said, “He’s the best I’ve ever had, the best I’ve ever seen.” Nowadays, Frankel stands at Banstead Manor Stud in Cheveley, near Newmarket, where he commands a fee of £350,000, befitting a stallion who was leading sire in Europe, by prize money, in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Bred by Juddmonte Farms, Frankel raced in the famous pink, green and white colours of the late Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, the founder of that enterprise. Awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 147, he remains the highest-rated horse in the history of that organisation, 2lb ahead of the 1965 Derby winner Sea-Bird and 3lb ahead of the likes of Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel.
Ridden throughout his career by Tom Queally, Frankel won 10 races at the highest, Group 1 level, starting with the Dewhurst Stakes, over seven furlongs, at Newmarket on October 20, 2010 and ending with the aforementioned Champion Stakes, over a mile and a quarter, two years later. In between times, he won the 2,000 Guineas, St. James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in 2011 and the Lockinge Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes, Sussex Stakes (again) and Juddmonte International Stakes in 2012.
Frankel started favourite on all 14 starts and was sent off at odds-against just once, on his debut in a maiden stakes race at Newmarket on August 13, 2010. Indeed, on his last four starts, he was returned at hugely prohibitive odds of 1/10, 1/20, 1/10 and 2/11. In his career as a whole, he accumulated an aggregate winning distance of 76¼ lengths and fractionally shy of £3 million in prize money.