Classic tests fast approaching in Frankel's stallion career

It has been a long journey to reach the crossroads. More than four years after Frankel retired to stud, his first crop of three-year-olds will provide the best insight yet into whether his stallion innings might match his exemplary racing career.

Every stallion must pass through this four-year cycle. The first year is the easiest: his racing reputation, coupled with his novelty value, is sufficiently seductive for him to attract mares in abundance. Years two and three are more difficult in the face of competition from new stallion recruits.

Year four is the hardest: the stallion’s first two-year-old runners who will greatly influence breeders’ thinking will be doing the rounds just as the stallion has finished covering his fourth book of mares in June. Why breed a mare to a stallion in year four when his two-year-olds could leave his reputation in ruins?