Horse Profile: Don Frankie

Breeders' Cup Sprint Scouting Report

(Editor's note: Originally published in the 2024 BRISnet Breeders' Cup International Report) 

As a confirmed front runner, Don Frankie promises to add fuel to the pace fire in the Sprint. The powerfully-built bull of a horse is a stablemate of Juvenile Fillies hopeful American Bikini, both trained by Takashi Saito.

By Daiwa Major, Don Frankie is out of Weemissfrankie, the winner of the 2011 Del Mar Debutante (G1) and Oak Leaf (G1). She was also third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. 

Don Frankie burst onto the sprint scene when holding off Remake in the 2023 Procyon (G3) at Chukyo. He couldn’t duplicate the feat when they squared off a month later in the Cluster Cup at Morioka. Remake blew by him, and he had to settle for best of the rest.

Don Frankie’s only two losses in the interim came in the February (G1), as he tired to ninth over a metric mile, and in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) on World Cup night, where he was a distant second after vying with freakish local Tuz. But Don Frankie gained a valuable piece of form by staving off American shipper Nakatomi, and he improved his head-to-head record against Remake, who got no nearer than fourth. Both closers had trouble, though, that affected their stretch rallies.

In his past two sprints in Japan, Don Frankie has been unassailable. He won the pace battle, and the war, in last fall’s Tokyo Hai, posting a record time of 1:10 in the slop at Oi. Resuming from his post-Dubai holiday in the Aug. 14 renewal of the Cluster Cup, Don Frankie scored by a measured half-length.

Cristian Demuro, who rode Don Frankie in Dubai, will regain the mount. Drawn in post 5, he’s in the thick of the scrum with Federal Judge and Straight No Chaser nearby on either side. If he can somehow clear, he would be dangerous. Chances are he’s in an all-out melee from the start, but Don Frankie has the ability to persevere for a long way.