BY LEE MOTTERSHEAD
PICTURE: Martin Lynch (racingpost.com/photos), BY LEE MOTTERSHEAD6:46PM 14 NOV 2012
THE PRICE of an assignation with arguably the greatest racehorse of all time was on Wednesday set at £125,000 as Frankel’s owner-breeder Khalid Abdullah decided on a covering fee for his world champion that seems likely to earn the Juddmonte supremo over £30 million in just three years.
Frankel, whose first progeny will not reach the racecourse until 2016, last week left Sir Henry Cecil’s Warren Place stables to join the stallion roster at Abdullah’s nearby Banstead Manor Stud, where he will begin the opening year of his new career in February with a price tag that makes him the world’s third most expensive stallion.
Only Frankel’s outstanding Irish-based father Galileo, who is thought to stand for up to €300,000 at Coolmore, and the John Magnier-led syndicate’s Australian flagbearer Fastnet Rock, advertised at Aus$220,000 (£144,000), have a greater covering fee than Frankel, whose connections on Wednesday refused to disclose how many mares he will be teamed up with in his opening season.
Juddmonte general manager Philip Mitchell said: “The fee for Frankel reflects his merits as being perhaps the greatest racehorse we have ever witnessed. He is by Galileo, who is now recognised as the best sire in the world, and out of Kind, a winner of six races (from five to seven furlongs) and herself a daughter of one of the most influential stallions in the history of thoroughbred breeding, Danehill.”
Racingpost
