FIVE MINUTES WITH ST. JOE HIRSCH – FRANKEL ON FRANKEL
June 14th, 2011By St. Joe Hirsch
Bobby Frankel
NYRA Photo
We caught up with Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel on opening day of Royal Ascot, as he was dining with the Queen Mother and Marty Ritt, to get his impressions of his namesake, St. James Palace Stakes (G1) winner, Frankel.
JH: Prince Khalid Abdullah is very fond of you. When you joined us here behind the Pearly Gates, the Prince named a horse Frankel in your honor. What did you think?
BF: It embarrassed me, ya’ know? Most of the time it never works out. Like when that moron Nahem named that horse Frankelstein.
JH: What do you think now?
BF: Frankel’s a nice horse but everybody’s jumped on the bandwagon. It’s a public snowball.
JH: It’s fairly easy to be a fan of a horse that has won seven races in a row.
BF: To win seven races in a row you have to be a horse that doesn’t make any mistakes and he doesn’t make any.
JH: There has been much ado made about the ride he got in the Queen Anne. You couldn’t have been too pleased.
BF: I was a little upset when he was that close during the early part, but on this turf course, it didn’t look like you could close much ground. It just shows how versatile a horse he is. I gave Queally instructions before the 2000 Guineas. I don’t know if he understood me, but he rode him just the way I wanted him to, so I figured we were on the same page.
JH: How did you do that?
BF: The night before in a dream.
JH: Impressive. Do you think the colt would benefit from a rider change?
BF: You know me Joe. I would want Jerry Bailey. What’s great about Bailey is that he rode like he was still 25. He wasn’t scared. I was impressed with the way he’d go through holes with no fear. And he came into the paddock before the race well prepared. He knew exactly what was going on – he’d handicap the horses and the jockeys.
JH: So your answer would be yes.
BF: I shouldn’t have said anything.
JH: Bottom line, what do you really think about Frankel?
BF: It brings tears to my eyes to watch him run. The thing that makes him so special is he tries so hard. He’s so competitive. He wants to outrun you. He wants to beat you.
JH: So he really is aptly named.
BF: Don’t embarrass me Joe.
JH: How good do you think he can be?
BF: It’s a question of how far he wants to go. I’m still not convinced he can get a mile and a quarter. The other thing is soundness. You know what I always say, strawberries one day; jam the next. If he stays sound, I don’t think you’ve seen the best of this horse.
