Juddmonte Farm’s champion sire Frankel delivered Epsom Derby success this year for Godolphin with quality colt Adayar and has also given them victory in the Group I Irish Derby (1m4f), which was won overnight at the Curragh by Hurricane Lane.
Trained by Charlie Appleby and ridden by William Buick, Hurricane Lane won his first three starts before being beaten for the first time in the Epsom Derby when finishing third to his stablemate Adayar.
In this assignment, Hurricane Lane unleashed a powerful finish to run down the leader Lone Eagle (Galileo) to win by a neck with some seven lengths back to the third horse Wordsmith (Galileo).
“Coming into this race, I was confident that Hurricane Lane had gained a lot of experience from Epsom, when he was the most-fancied of our three runners. I think inexperience probably told that day – he came off the bridle a bit earlier than I expected at the top of the hill. He also lost both his front shoes, but we definitely saw a marked improvement in his homework afterwards,” said Charlie Appleby.
“Mentally, you saw that he was on his A-game today and came into the race a more experienced and battle-hardened horse. He is a fantastic looking individual and it’s hard to fault him.”
A 200,000 guinea purchase for Godolphin from the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Hurricane Lane was bred by Normandie Stud and is a full brother to stakes-placed Frankel’s Storm being from stakes-winning stayer Gale Force, a half-sister to Champion Older Female Stayer and Group I winner Seal of Approval.
Hurricane Lane is the 16th Group I winner worldwide for Frankel, who has built some impressive statistics from his stud career to date.
Of his 72 stakes-winners, 16 of them are Group I winners – three in Australia - and his stakes-winner to runner strike rate is 15.4%.... compare that to any of our leading sires and you will see why Frankel has been a popular choice for Australian breeders looking to have mares covered in the UK to Southern Hemisphere time.
There were five Frankel foals born in Australia last year, 19 the year before and 16 and 14 in the years before that.
Frankel stands at a fee of 175,000 pounds ($A318,216) this year.
