Frankel progeny starting to stamp their authority

After a patchy start, Frankel is making waves in the breeding department.

When the sun went down on Frankel's racing career in 2012, the horse racing world was licking their lips at the thought of Frankel covering some of the best mares across the globe. In his first year of his progeny coming out in 2016, he showed glimpses of making a good name for himself without showcasing any absurdly good 2 year olds in the UK. Queen Kindly was his best 2 year old, making £138k in prize money whilst scooping up a Group 2. He also had a winner from his very first runner in the shape of Cunco. Beautifully bred by Chrysanthemum, who was fairly high class herself, he went off 7/2 in the Chesham at Royal Ascot, and ran well behind subsequent 2000 Guineas winner, Churchill. We were also lucky enough to see the top class Cracksman in 2016, winning a 6k maiden at Newmarket on his first outing. To date, he is still Frankel's highest rated progeny.

Whilst Cracksman made a huge name for himself in the next 2 years. being unlucky in both the Epsom Derby and the Irish Derby whilst winning 4 grade 1's, there wasn't a huge splash made by the rest of the progeny bar a couple of good ones in Asia in 2017. For £125k for each mare being covered, there was a shortage of big stars in his progeny to that date. It was also worth noting that Cracksman success also pushed his stud fee up to a whopping 175k. Even going into 2018 and 2019, there was only a scattering of decent stars with Without Parole and Logician, taking in big grade 1's with nothing to write home about elsewhere.

Again moving into 2020, there were only a handful of decent horses again, with Call The Wind winning a £1 million plus race in Saudi Arabia as his main money earner for the stats. However only 2 of his progeny earned over £500k in prize money. Even Frankel's biggest fans would be slightly concerned at this. However, all was not lost as 2020 was an interrupted season due to the pandemic that forced racing into hibernation around most of the world.

Despite the greatest horse I've ever seen blowing hot and cold in the breeding department, things have moved on a great deal into the 2021 flat season. It looks to be a coming of age for Frankel this season. 2 classics already in the bag with Adayar improving considerably to power home in the Epsom Derby. Another Frankel bred horse Hurricane Lane, who finished 3rd at Epsom, then franked the form winning the Irish Derby with a late swoop at the weekend. To add to this, Frankel had Royal Ascot winners including the exciting Hampton Court winner Mohaafeth, whilst has had numerous stakes winners in the Southern Hemisphere too. He also sits up the top this season as the top sire in terms of prize money in the UK and Ireland.

In what has been a hot and cold start to his breeding career, it now looks like Frankel is ready to be the 'heir to the throne' to his father, and superstar shagger Galileo. Why did we ever doubt him?