Tony Wells - Racegoers Club column - October 2023
Has there ever been a better farewell tour than Frankie’s? He has entertained racegoers for over three decades and been a punters pal and a scourge of the bookies in that time too. Lanfranco Dettori has lit up so many meetings in his farewell season. Many will argue that he is riding better than ever and shouldn’t be retiring and it wouldn’t be the biggest surprise if he changed his mind. If he had sat down and scripted his final season himself, he would have printed it out, screwed it up and threw it in the bin, as it would have been too far-fetched.
I was there for his Epsom farewell that contained a Group 1 fillies double with Emily Upjohn in the Coronation Cup, followed by his 7th Oaks on Soul Sister. I can honestly say, I have never known an atmosphere like it at Epsom. Frankie was electrifying on the two fillies, hurtling down the outside to land the spoils. The scenes in the Winners Enclosure after the Oaks will live long in the memory, with Frankie lifting Lady Bamford off her feet in celebration.
On he went to the royal meeting where he landed his 9th Gold Cup on Courage Mon Ami. He broke royal protocol by kissing Queen Camilla during the presentation. But, Frankie can get away with things like that, can’t he. He is unique and will be irreplaceable. At the course he is most closely associated with, where he rode his ‘magnificent seven’ over half his lifetime ago, he excelled again and pushed his number of Royal Ascot victories to 81. Like a fine wine, he has improved with age.
It was very disappointing that racegoers at the Eclipse and Newmarket July meetings were prevented from seeing him in action, due to him picking up a lengthy ban at Royal Ascot. But in a strange quirk of fate, a similar ban for Jim Crowley allowed Frankie to pick up the ride on Mostahdaf in the Juddmonte International at York. His front running ride was masterful, as he judged the fractions spot on to bring the Shadwell 5yo home in front of a small, but select field. He wasn’t finished there though and on the final day he bagged a double with one of his old favourites, Kinross and then naturally he had to win the Ebor with a horse called Absurde! As I said, if he scripted it himself, six months ago, you wouldn’t have believed it.
All these recent memories got me thinking back to some personal memories of Frankie. I remember being away for a weekend break in Wiltshire in the autumn of 2008. We awoke on the Sunday morning to thick fog, which provided us with some spectacular images of dew covered spider’s webs adorning the wooden fence outside our holiday cottage. The fog lifted by mid morning and we headed off to Bath for an afternoon’s racing. I had never been to Bath racecourse at the time and I was keen to tick it off my list. As an added bonus, Frankie was there to ride Alexandros in the Godolphin blue. Of course, they won the listed feature race. Sarah and I cheered Frankie on to victory and I immediately said to her, “let’s hurry to the winners enclosure, I think Frankie might do a flying dismount”. We managed to get there first and were in pole position as Alexandros and Frankie came towards us. Frankie held his arms out, cocked one hand behind his ear to play the crowd. He was getting ready and so was I. As he leapt into the air, I pressed the button on the camera, but it was one of those APS cameras and it had a second or two time delay before taking the picture. When I looked down at the picture I’d taken, Alexandros looked magnificent, but where was Frankie? On closer inspection all that I had captured of Frankie was his blue hat at the bottom of the photo. It would have made a great choice for the picture round on A Question of Sport! Many years later, I did manage to grab a photo with Frankie at Epsom, but I was so star struck I forgot to tell him my Alexandros story.
Another memory was from Champions Day in 2018. Cracksman had just won his second Champion Stakes and I was determined to get a good view of Frankie as he returned victorious. As I approached the parade ring, I could see it was heaving around the winners enclosure. So thinking quickly, I decided I would head over to the other side of the paddock and catch Frankie entering the parade ring, from the tunnel. I sprinted up the steps, but as I got to the top, there was a thick rope at waist height. I quickly ducked under it, only to be admonished by a police officer, “Sir, the rope is there for a reason”. I ducked back under the rope and instead of seeing Frankie’s flying dismount, I got to see the Queen drive past!
There’s not much time left to see Frankie in action, but if you’re going to Ascot on Champions Day, I’m sure you’ll join me and thousands of others in giving him the send off he deserves and if he has got the script right, he’ll give us some more memorable moments.