Horses, people and races are what Cecil loved all of which loved him in return.
This is why for those who really followed extraordinary career, the death at the age of seventy while fighting against the stomach cancer seems very much like a loss of family member.
4 victories in Derby at the Epsom,10 champion trainer like titles and 75 wins ofa Royal Ascot depicting just a very small portion of story.
Seventy year of age slumped from the training king towards also-ran, did bounce back once more.
During some terrible years, he got divorced from 2nd wife, his twin alcoholic brother David’s death, a ban on drink-driving and fall by the top of training perch.
During the year 2001 to 2005,he got failed landing Group One race to the highest level resulting in plummeted to ninety fourth in the list of trainers.
On February 2007, he revealed a battle of cancer that he very quietly had fought more than 6 years and somehow had pushed aside while resurrecting the career with horses of high-class like Midday and Twice Over.
It was said by him in an interview that after his brother’s death, divorces and financial things didn’t make him think of his end. He was just thinking that he couldn’t be also-ran.
He said that he didn’t intend to be pathetic while hearing the people on the Newmarket Heath saying ‘here’s Henry Cecil who should better had retired before’ and that things of that sort hurt him.
Being a champion very much like others, he was galvanised due to the doubters as well as Franklin who was named after a famous US trainer Bobby Frankel, so he had the equine partner with whom to forge successes.
Cecil might know the fact that it would be the greatest and last partnership and he very carefully nurtured this colt, making himself resist temptation of achieving helter-skelter Derby test of stamina after whirlwind victory in 2000 Guineas.
14 wins consecutively followed due to his sincere owner Prince Khalid Abdullah as well as Tom Queally the Irish Jockey before this horse retired in the month of October in 2012.
Tribute For Sir Henry Cecil
Special programme was presented by Ian Payne considering the achievements and career of Sir Henry Cecil in the horse racing.
Franklin being a lifetime horse, might well had helped to prolong the Cecil’s life. Wonder horse had given him one more reason for living.
In the Flat racing in which millions do revolve around the careers which are breeding and trainers could appear to be aloof, Cecil attempted to take time out to chat with eager racegoers and sign autographs.
He was an aristocrat at the first glance though was awarded knighthood around exactly 2 years back in Queen’s Birthday Honors List, that is tribute to the man who is quirky like the animals that he trained.
Queally, Frankel’s jockey, said that he was people’s man and had important job. He also said that Cecil could be up in clouds as much as he wants though he still is very understanding and approachable.
Cecil’s father died during the war, at the age of 28, before Cecil was born and Cecil didn’t have any racing background. It was on one farm 8 miles away from Newmarket that his mother lived and her marriage with the trainer Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort was what introduced him to this sport.
He also helped his stepfather as he trained the horses for Queen, before obtaining a licence in 1969 himself and getting on with being his generation’s leading trainer.
The Analysis
Racing particularly, though sport generally, tends to grieve a truly great man.
He hit heights being a trainer, colorful in the terms of dress and personality and also depths when horses number that was under Cecil’s care dwindled till extent of prompting talk of retirement.
Still, in spite of cancer, Cecil made up his mind to return. Many wept when the success in Oaks 2007 with the Light Shift did bring him to big-time back. Then Frankel came.
There wasn’t any racing figure better at doing what Cecil did nor better-loved. Royal Ascot next week wouldn’t feel like this.
The horses which ensured that the flag got raised after each Group One win included Bosra Sham, Light Shift, Ardross, Love Divine,Slip Anchor, Reference Point and Wince, and flag did flutter regularly at Cecil’s yard Warren Place in Newmarket.
Last filly which won Triple Crown was Oh So Sharp, claiming Classics’ hat-trick in 1985’s St Leger and a thousand Guineas, Oaks.
Particularly, Cecil excelled with this species’ female and admitted that he had one feminine side.
The trainer said that he thought he should be born with hormones of females and that he loved shopping. He always wished to dress in a fine way, often with his attire featuring ties of top-notch, socks of bright colours and shiny loafers.
It was to a side that he tilted head as he answered media’s questions and had this blinking habit while thinking about answers or while posing some question himself.
He confessed he liked horses that have big ears, that he had awesome collection of the toy soldiers along with good things as theatre, ice cream and roses to battle the cancer.
Cecil prefers relying on instinct instead of stopwatches, though racing in the sport that involves examining distances and times etc.
The trained seemed to have great enthusiasm for victories and himself, he admitted he likes to beat people.
He enjoyed drawing empty crossword during each season’s beginning and coloured each box for every winner he got.
Sir Henry Cecil At The Royal Ascot
- He has trained 75 winners, more than everyone
- Cecil’s tally is equivalent of being victorious at each race at meeting for 2.5 years
A lot of coloring in was given to him to do from Frankel and he added glorious and final dash of the color to rollercoaster career.
Manager of racing to Khalid Abdullah, Teddy Grimthorpe said that re-emergence of Henry as trainer wasn’t only one of greatest sport stories, but like an all-time awesome story generally.
Cecil, father of 3, left sincere Jane, his devoted 3rd wife as well as catalogue of many memorable moments.
On Tuesday, when his death got announced, several journalists were at a British Horseracing Authority briefing within London regarding economic impact of this sport.Many were teary-eyed when they remembered impact of one quirky, self-effacing and flawed genius.
The term for best racehorses ‘genuine’ could here be easily applied to one truly excellent trainer.
