Frankyfourfingers No More
Death of a Star…
On January 26, we lost a star. Frankyfourfingers, the son of Sunday Break, a seasoned race horse passed away while doing what he did best, lead the pack. The Group 3 Jebel Ali Mile was the unfortunate race that became the reason for his demise.
He had a great start to the race and was leading the pack when he had a catastrophic fall which left him severely injured. His rider Royston Ffrench suffered multiple fractures and is currently wheelchair bound. He is on his way to recovery but we can’t say the same for the Frankyfourfingers. His trainer Salem bin Ghadayer was distraught after Frankyfourfingers fell catastrophically while heading the field in the Group 3 contest. His injuries were so severe that euthanising him was the right way forward.
He came to Dubai in January 2015 after being sold to HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum. He thrived under the wise guidance of Salem bin Ghadayer.
After multiple injuries and disheartening performance led him to be rested for a quite a while. He was on and off the races. In between he raced a few but only managed to finish in double figure positions. His trainer said, “It’s never easy to lose a horse like Frankyfourfingers, but our consolation is we lost him as a soldier on the battlefield and not in the stables. He gave us another season with two important wins before he died.”
By Apurva Chavan, Racing Writer, apurva.chavan@secretariatsworld.com