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Tom Queally

L

Len Madeiros

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Joined
Oct 15, 2012
Messages
1,355
Location
London
Was he a great jockey, or did he just strike lucky with Henry Cecil and Frankel? Should he still be bumping up the arses of Class 6 horses at Lingfield, for the Moores, “struggling to get out of a pocket?” Frankel seems a very long time ago.
 
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He probably did very well for himself in the Frankel years but beyond that he struck me as a not-today jockey outside of certain owners/trainers for which he does have a very good strike rate.

Any time he's jocked up on one I like I always, always check his record for the connections/trainer. I'm often happy to let the booking put me off.
 
Frankel bolted under him in the 2,000 Guineas and the fella almost managed to get the greatest Flat racehorse I've ever seen (and maybe anyone has ever seen) beat in the St James's Palace.

After that, he learned how to ride him.

He was definitely in the right place at the right time to get the Frankel ride - and fortunate to keep it.

Greville Starkey was a ten times better jockey and he lost the ride on Dancing Brave in the same colours when, in my view, he was more a victim of circumstances than to blame - I was there in the press box that day at Epsom in 1986 btw.
 
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Using percentage runners beaten squared as a more granular (PRB2) performance measure I get the following for Tom Queally (data up to 2025-03-22)

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I think a fairly average jockey who just gelled with a horse who had the potential to go the wrong way. Henry recognised that immediately so he kept the ride.
 
There's jockeys who get a lot more rides who I would rate no better or worse re the metrics above e.g Cam Hardie
 
I remember Carson commenting that if Frankel had turned up when Piggott or Cauthen was HRAC's stable jockey he reckoned he would have run in the Derby . I imagine that did not go down well with Queally.

His ride on Frankel in the St James's Palace must go down as one of the worst winning rides of all time.
 
Ardross said:
I remember Carson commenting that if Frankel had turned up when Piggott or Cauthen was HRAC's stable jockey he reckoned he would have run in the Derby . I imagine that did not go down well with Queally.

His ride on Frankel in the St James's Palace must go down as one of the worst winning rides of all time.
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Just aswell he rocked up a bit later then!

I can still see the face of Cecil in the last half furlong of the SJP.
 
Frankel said:
Just aswell he rocked up a bit later then!

I can still see the face of Cecil in the last half furlong of the SJP.
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I think the success of his offspring suggest that Frankel would have stayed a mile and a half under Lester or Cauthen .
 
Ardross said:
I think the success of his offspring suggest that Frankel would have stayed a mile and a half under Lester or Cauthen .
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There is no exact science in breeding as you know. Plenty have not got the trip also.
I do think he would probably have got it as a 4yr old.
Imagine though, if the Derby was the plan, you would not have seen his jaw dropping Guineas performance. You also would not have seen his Queen Anne demolition. He would not have been allowed to use himself like he did in his Royal Lodge demolition either.
 
Ardross said:
I remember Carson commenting that if Frankel had turned up when Piggott or Cauthen was HRAC's stable jockey he reckoned he would have run in the Derby . I imagine that did not go down well with Queally.

His ride on Frankel in the St James's Palace must go down as one of the worst winning rides of all time.
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Better than the best losing ride of all time.
 
I think if he'd gone for the Derby, with his slightly volatile temperament (at the time...it did improve as he matured), then there was every chance that he could have boiled over as Epsom on Derby day can be challenging. Cecil did 100% the right thing.
 
Frankel said:
There is no exact science in breeding as you know. Plenty have not got the trip also.
I do think he would probably have got it as a 4yr old.
Imagine though, if the Derby was the plan, you would not have seen his jaw dropping Guineas performance. You also would not have seen his Queen Anne demolition. He would not have been allowed to use himself like he did in his Royal Lodge demolition either.
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Frankel was a brilliant talent but he was hard to train. Henry Cecil was helped by the fact Frankel never had to spend a night away from his own stable and it was only at the end of his career that he was asked to stretch to 10f.

The largely forgotten Sea The Stars had a more demanding career, racing only once in his home country as a 3yo and winning top races over 8, 10 and 12 furlongs. Arguably he achieved more than the greatly more celebrated Frankel.
 
Grey said:
Frankel was a brilliant talent but he was hard to train. Henry Cecil was helped by the fact Frankel never had to spend a night away from his own stable and it was only at the end of his career that he was asked to stretch to 10f.

The largely forgotten Sea The Stars had a more demanding career, racing only once in his home country as a 3yo and winning top races over 8, 10 and 12 furlongs. Arguably he achieved more than the greatly more celebrated Frankel.
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I don’t usually get attached to flat horses the way that I do with NH horses but Sea the Stars was one of the exceptions. I adored him right from the start and was a complete wreck when he ran in the Arc. I spoke to Sean Magee at one of our racing club meetings. He’d just written a book about him and said he was the consummate professional in everything he did.
 
Grey said:
Frankel was a brilliant talent but he was hard to train. Henry Cecil was helped by the fact Frankel never had to spend a night away from his own stable and it was only at the end of his career that he was asked to stretch to 10f.
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Aye,swerved the.Eclipse for York's less exacting 10f.
Proof,if it were needed,that he wouldn't have stayed 12f.
 
Grey said:
Frankel was a brilliant talent but he was hard to train. Henry Cecil was helped by the fact Frankel never had to spend a night away from his own stable and it was only at the end of his career that he was asked to stretch to 10f.

The largely forgotten Sea The Stars had a more demanding career, racing only once in his home country as a 3yo and winning top races over 8, 10 and 12 furlongs. Arguably he achieved more than the greatly more celebrated Frankel.
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Agree with all of that. This is though the performance game. Frankel was in a different league.

STS was a sight in his last run in the Arc, he was however dealing with Youmzain ( who I loved btw). Frankel was having to deal with the beast Cirrus on his favoured ground.
 
I think Frankel could have got 12f at three if he'd been trained for it. His dosage says 12f minimum.


FRANKEL
ped_i.gif
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(GB) b. H, 2008 {1-k} DP = 5-2-23-15-1 (46) DI = 0.67 CD = -0.11

However, as suggested, his running style might have left him vulnerable. I wonder if Henry up there looking down with the infinite knowledge he'd now have would be thinking that if he'd concentrated on getting him to settle he'd have been fine in the Derby, notwithstanding questions about his temperament. I'm talking more about his raw ability.

However, and I've said this on here a few times, even though I was too young to know Sea Bird when I saw footage of his Derby and Arc I thought I was looking at a different species.

I came into racing just in time for the Nijinsky-Brigadier Gerard-Mill Reef golden era and loved all three. I was too young too to have a rating for Nijinsky but his style in winning races was that of impressive ease. The Brigadier's was more workmanlike-looking but he kept putting vast distances between himself and G1 winners in fast times. Mill Reef had a bit of both about him. I had both him and the Brigadier over 140.

I wasn't sure about buying into the Frankel hype because I became more cautious and cynical about some things as I got older but more than once he made it obvious to me that he was the best I'd ever rated, pushing the 150 mark, and I honestly thought I would never live to see that happen so whether he would have won the Derby has become pretty immaterial for me.

He is just the greatest.

(That said, I never tried to come up with figures for Secretariat!)
 


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