Frank Another Star for Hascombe and Valiant

'Dreams come a long way,' posted James Frank on Twitter this week after the Hascombe and Valiant Studs worker was named Employee of the Year at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in London.

Frank has literally come a long way, from his native Zimbabwe to Newmarket, where he has been based for the best part of the last two decades. For the last seven years he has been employed by Anthony Oppenheimer, and the 42-year-old timed his run to perfection when he started his stint working with the yearlings at the farm. Among the first bunch with which Frank was associated was a young colt by Cape Cross (Ire) who would be named Golden Horn (GB) and go on to become champion 3-year-old and Horse of the Year after a season which saw him win the Derby, Eclipse, Irish Champion S. and the Arc.

Frank's easy way with horses is to the manner born. His father was a racing groom and he grew up in a racing yard, eventually following the example of his elder brother, who became an apprentice jockey in Zimbabwe.

“I tried to be an apprentice myself but I couldn't because that year they weren't taking any more on so I started working as a work rider,” he says.

“After a while I took a break from horses and thought maybe that's not for me, but I spent seven months away and then I realised I needed to go back to the horses so I started looking for a new job which I was given by a trainer called Ronnie Shinn.”

He continues, “I ended up being his foreman and by that time I could ride, break yearlings, take horses into starting stalls, and he gave me three chances to ride in group races.”

An advertisement in the race card looking for people to come to work in England led to Frank's departure from his home country and a turn in his career path which would bring his experience with Thoroughbreds full circle. His first foray into life on the breeding side of the business took him to Genesis Green Stud, working for Michael Swinburn.

“I started right at the bottom at Genesis Green,” he recalls. “I had no experience of stud work but Michael was very good at teaching people who were very keen. The economy had gone down in Zimbabwe and I needed the job more than anything but in the first few weeks I thought I was going to fail. We used our hands to muck out in Zimbabwe and the first day I was at Genesis Green they gave me a fork. I remember going around with Michael, working next to him, and I had my fork and I was thinking I was struggling because I had never used a fork. But Michael said 'if you want to learn I will teach you', and I did foals and yearlings, sales.”

He adds, “I soon realised I was safer on the ground and I embraced the stud life straightaway even though stud work can be a bit tough, especially during this time of the year.”

What will have helped to sustain the eight-strong team at Hascome and Valiant Studs through the bleak midwinters of recent years is the stream of classy horses to have graduated from the stud. While Golden Horn was carrying all before him in his Classic year, waiting in the wings at the yearling yard was a strapping colt from the first crop of Frankel out of Oppenheimer's homebred listed winner Rhadegunda (GB) (Pivotal {GB}). Just two years later, Cracksman (GB), as he became known, finished a length behind Wings Of Eagles (Fr) (Pour Moi {Ire}) when third in the Derby and went on to land back-to-back runnings of the G1 Champion S., as well as winning the G1 Prix Ganay and G1 Coronation Cup. Fast forward another two years and the Irish Oaks winner Star Catcher (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) cast the spotlight on the excellence of the Hascombe and Valiant breeding programme once more and notched another two Group 1 victories, in the Prix Vermeille and the British Champions Fillies & Mares, following her Classic success.

“To have one champion was a great thing but to have almost three champions is amazing, especially when you follow their careers,” Frank says. “When Golden Horn started racing I didn't really follow racing but then when he ran in the Feilden Stakes I realised he was a good horse and then I started watching every single race and following every horse we've ever looked after. It fills me with joy and excitement when I see all these good horses running that we've known.

“When Star Catcher comes back to the stud eventually she will be under my care in the yard where we keep the barren mares.”

For this season, however, Star Catcher, remains in training alongside Oppenheimer's 1000 Guineas entrant Frankly Darling (GB) (Frankel {GB}) at John Gosden's stable. Elsewhere in Newmarket the owner/breeder has Blow Your Horn (Ire), a son of Golden Horn who has a Derby entry, with Charlie Fellowes, and impressive maiden winner Little Becky (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), with Ed Vaughan. The latter, a grand-daughter of the stud's G1 Coronation S. winner Rebecca Sharp (GB) (Machiavellian), is nominated for the G1 Prix de Diane.

Frank, a father of four children between the ages of two and 22, says, “I've just started my eighth year at Hascombe and it is a privilege to work with these animals. By the time I left Genesis Green I was the stud groom but I felt I needed to downgrade myself a bit to spend some time with my children. Luckily I fell in to this; there was a stud groom and second man above me and I could just be where I was and relax a bit.”

He continues, “Just to be part of this has been great. It's astounding. Hopefully we have some nice fillies for this year. I've got a big board with all the winners but the very moment you put it up it has changed again.”

In 16 years of the Godolphin awards, Frank follows Terry Doherty of Watership Down Stud and Jessica Fortt of Dunraven Stud, winners respectively in 2017 and 2015, as the third member of the breeding industry to be named overall Employee of the Year after winning the Stud Staff Award category.

“Thank you so much to Mr and Mrs Oppenheimer for nominating me,” he says. “When I was told I was in the last three, when Fiona [McGlone, stud secretary] rang me, I couldn't believe it. Just being in the last three was good enough for me. Winning it was surreal. I still keep thinking 'was that me, did I win this?'”