Such is the cosmopolitan nature of racing and breeding in 2021 that Sydney’s Randwick racecourse provided further evidence, as if any was needed, of the impact at stud by Frankel.
The victory of the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Converge in Saturday’s Fernhill Handicap over 1600m made him the fifth stakes winner from 18 Frankel foals by southern hemisphere time to race and another of those, the Yulong-homebred Hungry Heart, took the Australian Oaks, her second consecutive Gr1 win.
There are 56 live Frankel foals of racing age conceived to southern hemisphere time and Converge the only one of 16 two-year-olds so far to race.
Frankely Awesome, Miss Fabulass and Significance are also stakes winners to give Frankel a current strike-rate of 36 percent.
You don’t need us to tell you that’s impressive.
Add to the list the stakes winning Frankel imports like Gr1 winner Mirage Dancer and Gr2 winner Finche and that gives Frankel seven stakes winners in Australia.
With only a quarter of 2021 done and dusted, Frankel has new French stakes winners Rumi and Big Five as the European flat season is about to get started in earnest and overall his 63 stakes winners from 439 runners equates to 14 percent.
Converge is the first stakes winner for Frankel out of a Shamardal mare following the Gr2 Musidora Stakes second Frankellina while the Canadian Gr2 winner Elizabeth Way is out of a mare by Shamardal’s sire Giant’s Causeway with Saturday’s Gr3 Auraria Stakes at Morphetteville fourth Steinem having Giant’s Causeway as her maternal grandsire.
Perhaps understandably, Frankel’s best broodmare sire to date numerically is his Banstead Manor barnmate Oasis Dream, closely followed by Pivotal, the broodmare sire of Hungry Heart as well as Cracksman and Veracious.
Converge’s dam Conversely was sold by Godolphin, who also sold Hungry Heart’s dam Harlech at auction, for 9000gns and her female line is primarily Argentinian in its immediate generations, stemming from the French-bred Nell who was imported to Argentina at the turn of last century.
Conversely is out of Melhor Ainda (Pulpit) won the Gr3 Sands Point Stakes at Belmont Park and Gr1-placed in the American Oaks and Beverly D Stakes.
Her dam the Gr1 Gran Premio Mil Guineas (1000 Guineas) at San Isidro winner and Oaks runner-up Potrinner (Potrillazo) a sister to four Gr1 winners including the Champion Juvenile Filly Potridee and Champion 3yo Filly Potrizaris, the dam of Japanese Gr3 winner Dia De La Nova.
Frankel’s only son at stud in Australia or New Zealand is French Gr2 winner and Epsom Derby fourth Eminent who also finished runner-up in the Gr1 Tancred Stakes at Rosehill and stands at Brighthill Stud where he was advertised at $7,500 last season.