Dante Festival: Frankel's jockey Tom Queally hoping to rediscover glory days at York

THE significance of the occasion will not be lost on Tom Queally when he gets the leg up at York today on The Tin Man, the sprinter seemingly made of iron.
Frankel ridden by Tom Queally wins the Juddmonte International Stakes during day one of the 2012 Ebor Festival at York Racecourse. (Picture: Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)Frankel ridden by Tom Queally wins the Juddmonte International Stakes during day one of the 2012 Ebor Festival at York Racecourse. (Picture: Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)
Frankel ridden by Tom Queally wins the Juddmonte International Stakes during day one of the 2012 Ebor Festival at York Racecourse. (Picture: Anna Gowthorpe/PA Wire)

The fiercely competitive Clipper Logistics Duke of York Stakes is the standout race on day one of the Dante festival, the season-opening meeting on Knavesmire.

Queally has high hopes that The Tin Man – named in honour of the legendary 19th century jockey Fred Archer – has improved still further after rounding off 2016 with a memorable victory in the Group One Qipco Champion Sprint at Ascot last October.

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And the quietly-spoken jockey is hopeful that this horse can re-energise his riding career following his association with the unrivalled and unbeatable Frankel, the late Sir Henry Cecil’s horse for the ages.

Jockey Tom QueallyJockey Tom Queally
Jockey Tom Queally

More reserved than most of his weighing room colleagues, the 32-year-old says the moment when he mounts his horse, and leaves the hubbub of the paddock for the quiet solitude of the racecourse, is when he is at his happiest.

Today’s Group Two test, in which the Yorkshire-trained Brando, Growl and Suedois will provide stiff opposition in this prestigious six-furlong contest, will be no different.

“He’s going to be my horse for this year,” Queally told The Yorkshire Post. “He signed off last year on a high. Given his pedigree, and what his siblings have achieved, he looks like he will get better with age.

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“It’s more of a case of maturing into a proper man as he gets older. It’s his first run of the year, and he has a 5lb penalty for being a Group One winner, but I wouldn’t swap him for anything else. If he’s as good as he was last year at Ascot, that will be good enough at York.”

Jockey Tom QueallyJockey Tom Queally
Jockey Tom Queally

Though Queally has learned, from experience, that The Tin Man has to be produced late, he talks informatively about the split-second decisions that jockeys have to take in races that last barely a minute. They invariably make all the difference and riders do have time to react while galloping at 40mph.

While he has ridden out the five-year-old at James Fanshawe’s stable in Newmarket, he credits the trainer’s son Tom for doing the day-to-day work with the horse.

“I’ve sat on him half a dozen times. Tom does a very good job and it’s not a necessity,” said Queally, as he spoke about a horse who provided him with his most significant success since the Frankel years. “He’s a hold-up horse who you have to deliver late. When things fall right, he is exceptional.”

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Relaxed in his outlook, Queally started riding for the thoughtful, and respected, Fanshawe when the aforementioned Cecil lost his fight with cancer in 2013.

“James understands how I ride and I understand how he trains,” said the jockey, who added it is special to ride for trainers who he also counts as friends.

Asked about Fanshawe’s special qualities, he said: “Patience. He’s very patient. He’s got tremendous feel for horses and their wellbeing. His attention to detail is second to none. There is no stone left unturned.”

David Lanigan, another Newmarket trainer, is also a useful ally while the rider is grateful for the support of his retained owner Mohamed Obaida, a Dubai-based property developer, whose blue and red colours are becoming increasingly prominent.

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It is a good platform as he looks to return to the level of consistency that saw him ride four successive centuries of winners from 2008 to 2011 inclusive, before the successes tailed off.

But while many Flat jockeys in their early thirties still hope to have their most successful years in front of them, Queally knows that he will never replicate his association with Frankel, which saw the equine superstar win 14 out of 14 races, including a mesmerising win in York’s Juddmonte International in 2012 that made exceptional horses look ordinary.

“Frankel did for me what Shergar did for Walter Swinburn in 1981,” reflected the rider.

“You become a more familiar face. Before him (Frankel), nobody stopped me in the street in London.

“After him, people would. That’s what comes with success.”

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Conscious that he would be “the fall guy” if the Prince Khalid Abdullah-owned champion was ever beaten, Queally says he simply tried to stay in “his little zone” as public expectation, and media scrutiny, intensified.

“I’m pretty laid back, but I was happiest when I was in the saddle,” he revealed.

It was not always easy, but he remains eternally grateful – to this day – of the enduring loyalty shown by Cecil. He also says the strength of this bond – the County Waterford-born jockey joined the Warren Place stable in 2008 when the training titan was re-emerging from a fallow spell – was greater than any of Frankel’s spellbinding performances on the track.

“A genius. Instinctively, he did the right thing for his horses,” ventured the jockey.

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“He rarely gave you riding instructions. It was a big deal to ride for someone so respected.

“It was a sad day for me when he died, but I was quite proud of the fact that I was his last stable jockey and I lasted to his dying breath. That is something I will always be proud of.

“It’s very hard to get a good horse, it’s even harder to keep the ride on a good one. One defeat, one wrong word. There were bigger names, but Henry said, ‘Tom rides the horses and that’s it’.

“I don’t know if he told any owners who disagreed to go away, but that’s how it was. I think it explains why I like riding for people like James (Fanshawe), people who are loyal. It’s a fickle world.”

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