When they present themselves there are certain experiences you simply have to undergo to make life complete, like rounding Cape Horn, watching the waters cascade over the Niagara Falls or flying on Concorde (although Mrs Oakley, I felt, rather overdid that last one when it was still possible by dancing that night with the captain in Cairo). I would add to the list, in the five months or so while it is still possible, the absolute must of seeing Frankel in action on a racecourse.
Owner Lady Beaverbrook once declared, ‘I have all the art I need but nothing makes my heart beat like a horse.’ And while in one way it is hard to think of something as muscular, mighty and masculine as a work of art, Frankel certainly is one. When jockey Tom Queally told him to go two furlongs out last Saturday, half a ton of horse quickened away from the second-best miler in Europe with an instant supercharged acceleration that was totally sublime.
The 14,000 of us who flocked to Newbury to see this racing phenomenon needed reassurance after the recent injury scare that could have ended his career.
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