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must have been having some very harsh chemo. Hope he will be ok
Well done Sir Henry and Frankel
Well done Sir Henry and Frankel
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hopefully that will give him a big lift and some strength.
he has gone downhill rapidly, didn't even know he had cancer, poor bugger
Was shocked when I saw the pictures,god willing he will beat that horrible disease.
does look very thin and gaunt but what a brilliant trainer and decent man well done sir henry ur a legend just like frankel 
I thought he performed brilliantly considering what his going through , showed how much bringing him to yorkshire mean to him.
poor henry!
really doesnt look like he has long left with us, i hate to say it.
Im happy he got a horse like frankel to train.
gl Sir Henry, get well soon!
really doesnt look like he has long left with us, i hate to say it.
Im happy he got a horse like frankel to train.
gl Sir Henry, get well soon!
Poor man,no doubt frankel gave him some boost,good luck to him.
Compare that interview with the last time he was on TV , upsetting to say the least
That look up to the sky when Thompson asked him how it made him feel "20 years better" was a little unsettling, like he was saying I might not be around for too much longer, hopefully he pulls through but with this horrible disease nothing is certain.
have to agree with buses, he has the look of someone dying, prognosis not good, such a shame
Best wishes to a true legend.
He could pull through but if he doesnt then by God he will have experienced highs
the vast majority of us could only ever dream about.
He could pull through but if he doesnt then by God he will have experienced highs
the vast majority of us could only ever dream about.
I echo all the above.Very pleased he was able to be there today to watch his great horse.
As someone who has gone through the ordeal of this horrible decease with a loved one,I just hope he makes it
Awful f'cuking disease, lost too many lovely people to it
Shows the strength of the man and what it meant to him to display him in yorkshire , a pair of classy true fighters they can only fight whats put in front of them.
Reading through these posts would not give much encouragement to anybody who is currently battling cancer.
A fitting finale to a training legend to train his greatest horse for his most loyal owner.
Such a great man. Hes had his ups and downs in the past and deserves more than this. He is such an honourable person and gentleman. I do hope he recovers.
Like everyone on this thread I was deeply saddened to see Henry looking a very ill man, I truly had a tear in my eye watching him being interviewed. I am sure everyone prays that he will return to something like his old self and we should salute him for making the effort to watch his wonderful Frankel. God Bless you Henry, you truly are "the man".
I have a friend who is battling cancer.
Has just had his 2nd bout of Chemo, the 2nd lot is far worse than the first and makes you very weak and tired.
I think Sir Henry is on his second treatment so this would explain him looking poorly.
GL Sir Henry keep battling!!!!
Has just had his 2nd bout of Chemo, the 2nd lot is far worse than the first and makes you very weak and tired.
I think Sir Henry is on his second treatment so this would explain him looking poorly.
GL Sir Henry keep battling!!!!
Brave man fronting it up,GL Henry hope you beat this bitch of a disease.
I think that he will have really wanted to be at this meeting but the sad thing with this terrible disease is that when you attain that level you never reach it again.I hope and wish him well
Must have taken a lot for him just to be there today. Hopefully it is just the effects of chemo and he will soon be back to his normal self.
I hope that some of the sympathy that is extended to Henry Cecil is also shown to Julie Cecil,let us not forget the manner in which she was humiliated.
I had the great pleasure of meeting him at Great Yarmouth races a few years back when taking my daughter to her very first race meeting.
He was a true gentleman,wished her a happy birthday and suggested that she have a small flutter e.w. on one of his horses.............it romped home. My daughter still has the autographed Racing Post as a great memory of an unforgetable man......We hope that you win this battle as you have won so many in the past.
He was a true gentleman,wished her a happy birthday and suggested that she have a small flutter e.w. on one of his horses.............it romped home. My daughter still has the autographed Racing Post as a great memory of an unforgetable man......We hope that you win this battle as you have won so many in the past.
you have to remember he has had this awful illness for a number of years now , it gets most in the end.
Still what a privilaged life he has had and still has.
Still what a privilaged life he has had and still has.
unfortunately its come back again, good luck to the great guy
BlazingWalker
BlazingWalker
22 Aug 12 17:38
Joined:
09 May 12
| Topic/replies: 48 | Blogger: BlazingWalker's blog
you have to remember he has had this awful illness for a number of years now , it gets most in the end.
Still what a privilaged life he has had and still has.
ABSOLUTE RUBBISH !
Survival rates depend on the nature of the cancer and how early it is detected -Yet your facts right !
BlazingWalker
22 Aug 12 17:38
Joined:
09 May 12
| Topic/replies: 48 | Blogger: BlazingWalker's blog
you have to remember he has had this awful illness for a number of years now , it gets most in the end.
Still what a privilaged life he has had and still has.
ABSOLUTE RUBBISH !
Survival rates depend on the nature of the cancer and how early it is detected -Yet your facts right !
Why interview him....I have huge respect for this dignified man and just wish he was spared a microphone being thrust in his face.
Rather than look down, look up for Sir HC. Positive thoughts.
this thread is the most honest and decent in the history of the betfair forum legends never die
maybe just the result of chemo which i suppose can drag you down......its a horrible disease
Can you even begin to imagine what it must have taken for him to travel to york and face the world media today , immense bravery and courage from the man .
Frankel today pales into insignificance when compared to the current health of sir henry .
Preying he will fight this and gain strength
Frankel today pales into insignificance when compared to the current health of sir henry .
Preying he will fight this and gain strength
last time he was on tv he looked quite well so seeing him today was a big shock
lets hope today gave him as much pleasure as it gave the rest of us who were there to see this great horse.
Henry has been part of my adult live even though I have never met him but have seen him often at the course, I have followed his career with great interest and shall do in the future. If there is a god he will be on Sir Henry's shoulder in his hour of need. Love his stance when he fell out with the Arabs. A great man indeed.
It is a real-life scandal that reads like a Jilly Cooper novel. Natalie Cecil, the former wife of the racehorse trainer Henry Cecil, has revealed how she was ostracised by the Newmarket racing set after her affair with a leading jockey and her battle against drink and drugs.
Mrs Cecil, 36, has disclosed how her marriage crumbled after her illicit one-night stand and her husband Henry's "encounter" with an £800-a-night prostitute at the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
Mr Cecil spent the night with the 20-year-old call girl while he and his wife were fighting to save their marriage. At the time, Mrs Cecil was being treated in the Priory Clinic in London for her addictions to alcohol, diet pills and Prozac.
The aloof trainer even visited his wife at the Priory and gave her a present on the day that details of his hotel room visit from Claire Jacobs, the prostitute, emerged on the front page of the News of the World under the headline: "Top trainer Cecil and the £800 vice girl".
Mrs Cecil, who was speaking for the first time about the break-up of her marriage and her divorce last year, had been shown a copy of the article earlier in the day by a fellow patient at the Priory.
Related Articles
Cecil gets five-year ban for drink-driving
03 Nov 2000
I was on the brink of quitting, says Cecil
05 Nov 2000
"He [Henry] arrived with a teddy bear that I had seen in a shop in Brighton," she says. "It was small compensation considering he had been with a hooker. I had a few words with him: a few very loud words." Mr Cecil issued a statement after the story confirming that Miss Jacobs had spent the night with him, but he denied having sex with her.
After Mrs Cecil left the Priory in 1999, Mr Cecil wanted a reconciliation and his wife considered moving to a rented house in Newmarket. She changed her mind, however, after a chance conversation. "I spoke to the wife of another trainer and she said, 'You might as well stay in London because you won't be invited to any dinner parties if you come back here'."
Mrs Cecil, who took the advice and moved to London, says of her decision to combat her addictions at the Priory: "It was hideous, hideous, hideous - and the best thing that ever happened to me. It was like starting all over again."
She had turned to drink and drugs after she became depressed by her fluctuating weight and her troubled marriage. When her weight soared, she turned to diet pills. When she became depressed, she took Prozac. When the drugs kept her awake, she drank alcohol to help her sleep. "I had lost my identity," she says.
Mrs Cecil was unfaithful during a working visit to Ireland in 1999 and had a one-night stand with a leading jockey. "Until then, I had been 100 per cent faithful. I met someone who made me laugh and whom I could drink with, and one thing led to another." She confided in two friends, one of whom went to the News of the World.
The result was a front-page story detailing her fling - including sex in a shower - with an unidentified jockey. Days after the disclosure, Mr Cecil, now 60, dismissed Kieren Fallon, his talented stable jockey, for "personal reasons". Mr Fallon, in turn, issued a statement denying that he was the jockey at the centre of the scandal.
In an interview with Tatler magazine, which is published this week, Mrs Cecil tells of her regret over her actions. "I got myself into an undignified situation," she says.
"I'll always regret it, not because I let Henry down - he'd let me down in that department - but because I had let myself down. Being unfaithful to someone is the lowest you can stoop. I told Henry what had happened before the article appeared. He was understanding and said, 'We do these things when we are low'."
Mrs Cecil had met her husband in 1989 when she was 22 and he was 46: she was running a breaking yard for young horses just outside Newmarket and Mr Cecil brought his yearlings to her.
Soon afterwards, they started an affair that became the talk of the racing town in Suffolk which has 70 racing stables and 2,500 horses, some worth millions of pounds, in training.
At the time, Mr Cecil was married to Julie Cecil, the daughter of the late Sir Noel Murless, who had trained for the Queen at Warren Place, where Mr Cecil now trains.
Eventually Julie Cecil, the mother of the couple's two children, moved out of the marital home and set up as a trainer nearby. Some of the couple's staff went with her, but most stayed with Mr Cecil, where they were hostile to the new mistress of Warren Place. "Many were openly abusive to me, but Henry didn't interfere. He said I had to earn their respect. I became as abusive as they were," says Mrs Cecil, who had a son, Jake, now nine, during her marriage to Mr Cecil. Owners and trainers were also aggressive towards her, she says, because they blamed her for wrecking the trainer's marriage.
In 1995, three years after they were wed, the Cecils were at the centre of yet another scandal when Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, the richest racing owner in the world, removed his 40 horses from Mr Cecil, claiming that he had been kept in the dark over an injury to one of his thoroughbreds. Later Sheikh Mohammed called a press conference at which he let it be known that Mrs Cecil's alleged interference in the yard had played a part in his decision to remove his horses.
Mrs Cecil revealed that her former husband, who has been champion racehorse trainer 10 times, was heartbroken by the decision. "Henry would bring along a young horse like a flower and to have it taken away from him just as it was going to blossom was horrendous," she says.
She added, however, that as the owner of the horses, the sheikh was entitled to do what he wanted with them. "If he wanted to paint them like zebras and sell them to a circus, he was entitled to because they were his horses."
Mrs Cecil admits that she made mistakes, but insists that interfering in the stables was not one of them. "I never did one thing, not one thing, without being asked to by Henry. I was just doing my best, but my best wasn't good enough."
Mrs Cecil, 36, has disclosed how her marriage crumbled after her illicit one-night stand and her husband Henry's "encounter" with an £800-a-night prostitute at the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
Mr Cecil spent the night with the 20-year-old call girl while he and his wife were fighting to save their marriage. At the time, Mrs Cecil was being treated in the Priory Clinic in London for her addictions to alcohol, diet pills and Prozac.
The aloof trainer even visited his wife at the Priory and gave her a present on the day that details of his hotel room visit from Claire Jacobs, the prostitute, emerged on the front page of the News of the World under the headline: "Top trainer Cecil and the £800 vice girl".
Mrs Cecil, who was speaking for the first time about the break-up of her marriage and her divorce last year, had been shown a copy of the article earlier in the day by a fellow patient at the Priory.
Related Articles
Cecil gets five-year ban for drink-driving
03 Nov 2000
I was on the brink of quitting, says Cecil
05 Nov 2000
"He [Henry] arrived with a teddy bear that I had seen in a shop in Brighton," she says. "It was small compensation considering he had been with a hooker. I had a few words with him: a few very loud words." Mr Cecil issued a statement after the story confirming that Miss Jacobs had spent the night with him, but he denied having sex with her.
After Mrs Cecil left the Priory in 1999, Mr Cecil wanted a reconciliation and his wife considered moving to a rented house in Newmarket. She changed her mind, however, after a chance conversation. "I spoke to the wife of another trainer and she said, 'You might as well stay in London because you won't be invited to any dinner parties if you come back here'."
Mrs Cecil, who took the advice and moved to London, says of her decision to combat her addictions at the Priory: "It was hideous, hideous, hideous - and the best thing that ever happened to me. It was like starting all over again."
She had turned to drink and drugs after she became depressed by her fluctuating weight and her troubled marriage. When her weight soared, she turned to diet pills. When she became depressed, she took Prozac. When the drugs kept her awake, she drank alcohol to help her sleep. "I had lost my identity," she says.
Mrs Cecil was unfaithful during a working visit to Ireland in 1999 and had a one-night stand with a leading jockey. "Until then, I had been 100 per cent faithful. I met someone who made me laugh and whom I could drink with, and one thing led to another." She confided in two friends, one of whom went to the News of the World.
The result was a front-page story detailing her fling - including sex in a shower - with an unidentified jockey. Days after the disclosure, Mr Cecil, now 60, dismissed Kieren Fallon, his talented stable jockey, for "personal reasons". Mr Fallon, in turn, issued a statement denying that he was the jockey at the centre of the scandal.
In an interview with Tatler magazine, which is published this week, Mrs Cecil tells of her regret over her actions. "I got myself into an undignified situation," she says.
"I'll always regret it, not because I let Henry down - he'd let me down in that department - but because I had let myself down. Being unfaithful to someone is the lowest you can stoop. I told Henry what had happened before the article appeared. He was understanding and said, 'We do these things when we are low'."
Mrs Cecil had met her husband in 1989 when she was 22 and he was 46: she was running a breaking yard for young horses just outside Newmarket and Mr Cecil brought his yearlings to her.
Soon afterwards, they started an affair that became the talk of the racing town in Suffolk which has 70 racing stables and 2,500 horses, some worth millions of pounds, in training.
At the time, Mr Cecil was married to Julie Cecil, the daughter of the late Sir Noel Murless, who had trained for the Queen at Warren Place, where Mr Cecil now trains.
Eventually Julie Cecil, the mother of the couple's two children, moved out of the marital home and set up as a trainer nearby. Some of the couple's staff went with her, but most stayed with Mr Cecil, where they were hostile to the new mistress of Warren Place. "Many were openly abusive to me, but Henry didn't interfere. He said I had to earn their respect. I became as abusive as they were," says Mrs Cecil, who had a son, Jake, now nine, during her marriage to Mr Cecil. Owners and trainers were also aggressive towards her, she says, because they blamed her for wrecking the trainer's marriage.
In 1995, three years after they were wed, the Cecils were at the centre of yet another scandal when Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum, the richest racing owner in the world, removed his 40 horses from Mr Cecil, claiming that he had been kept in the dark over an injury to one of his thoroughbreds. Later Sheikh Mohammed called a press conference at which he let it be known that Mrs Cecil's alleged interference in the yard had played a part in his decision to remove his horses.
Mrs Cecil revealed that her former husband, who has been champion racehorse trainer 10 times, was heartbroken by the decision. "Henry would bring along a young horse like a flower and to have it taken away from him just as it was going to blossom was horrendous," she says.
She added, however, that as the owner of the horses, the sheikh was entitled to do what he wanted with them. "If he wanted to paint them like zebras and sell them to a circus, he was entitled to because they were his horses."
Mrs Cecil admits that she made mistakes, but insists that interfering in the stables was not one of them. "I never did one thing, not one thing, without being asked to by Henry. I was just doing my best, but my best wasn't good enough."
Wish there was a cure for this cruel disease.
It doesn't care who it savages.
Good luck Mr Cecil.
It doesn't care who it savages.
Good luck Mr Cecil.
knew the grand father of stepthen davies a jockey with cecil....he said his grandson said julie was a lovely women and all the staff loved her but said natalie was the complete oposite
Do we know where hes got it ??????????????please????????????????
ihatethisforum - what a tasteless thing to post on an otherwise kind and sensitive thread
Sorry, but has Julie cecil passed on?, i certainly hope not
ihatethisforum obviously an attention seeker, no need to reply to his posts, get well soon Henry, not the time nor the place for the drivel posted by ihatethisforum
HENRY CECIL, the country's most successful racehorse trainer, almost turned his back on his glittering 30-year career after the most traumatic 18 months of his life, he has revealed to The Telegraph.
Mr Cecil, who last week escaped a jail sentence when he was convicted of a second drink-driving offence, was reduced to tears and sleepless nights by the breakdown of his second marriage, his twin brother's terminal cancer and his own battle for health after serious injury.
Mr Cecil said: "I don't think I could go through it all again." Mr Cecil said that he had considered abandoning Warren Place, the £8 million stables in Newmarket, Suffolk, where he has been champion Flat trainer 10 times and trained four Derby winners.
Mr Cecil said: "Some people can take things in their stride but I am sensitive. For me, molehills can turn into mountains, but the last year or so has been horrific, a time to forget."
Mr Cecil disclosed that despite their hopes of a reunion his eight-year marriage to his second wife, Natalie, a former stable employee, is effectively over. But he spoke of his admiration for the way that she has fought her addiction to Prozac, diet pills and alcohol so successfully that their son Jake, six, recently moved into her new London home. Mr Cecil said: "I married her because I love her and still do, and we are the greatest of friends. We will most probably never live together as man and wife but we will always be there for each other."
Related Articles
Mr Cecil, 57, married his wife, 33, in 1992, after their affair ended his marriage to his first wife, Julie, whose father, the late Sir Noel Murless, trained at Warren Place. "I want Natalie to be successful and happy. She is young and will be a strength to our son in his life when I am long gone," he said. Jake visits his father at weekends but moved to London "because a child should be with its mother".
For many in racing, Mr Cecil will always be a flawed genius, better at judging horse flesh than human character, more at home in his beloved rose garden than the focus of the television cameras.
Mr Cecil said that he had decided to speak exclusively to The Telegraph to put the record straight after being distressed by "false and hurtful" accusations about his estranged wife. They resurfaced in newspapers last week after he received a five-year driving ban and a £3,000 fine for his second drink-drive offence.
Mr Cecil said: "I strongly resent that, when things go wrong in my life, certain newspapers continually use Natalie as the excuse. This is not only unfair but untrue." He blamed many in racing for being unfriendly and aggressive towards her, when, in fact, she deserved praise for helping his career.
Mr Cecil said: "Newmarket is a very cliquey place and there were many who were either rude to her or would not accept her. She had so many nasty letters and telephone calls from people who did not understand or were determined to judge and pry into our private lives. They never gave her a chance." Speaking as he chain- smoked in his oak-panelled office, Mr Cecil said he had forgiven his estranged wife for her affair with a married jockey - disclosed by the News of the World in July last year - at a time when she felt "lonely and unhappy".
Mr Cecil said: "I have never blamed her for her hiccup and know she would never have wanted things to have happened that way." Days after the story appeared, Mr Cecil sacked Kieren Fallon, his stable jockey, although the Irishman, who is married with three children, later issued a statement denying that he was the jockey with whom Mrs Cecil had an affair.
Mrs Cecil, too, has forgiven her husband for the same paper's disclosure that he paid £800 to a prostitute while she was fighting her addictions at the Priory Clinic in south-west London last year. Mr Cecil said: "I was set up at a time when I was vulnerable and I didn't think. I felt dreadful about it."
He also spoke of the decision by Sheikh Mohammed, the world's richest racehorse owner, to remove his string of horses from Warren Place five years ago. While Newmarket gossips have blamed Mrs Cecil's interference for the Sheikh's removal of 40 thoroughbreds, Mr Cecil insisted that she was blameless.
Instead, he praised her for modernising the stables and said she deserved credit for much of his success in the 1990s. Mr Cecil said: "Sheikh Mohammed wanted to start up his own stable and it was as simple as that. It was nothing to do with Natalie." He said his estranged wife was a talented horsewoman who introduced innovative techniques.
The low point for Mr Cecil came when his twin brother, David, a recovering alcoholic, was diagnosed with cancer this year. "We have always been very close. They call him the the Iron Man in hospital because he is always so positive. I feel terrible because I am powerless to help." The driving ban will restrict visits to Lambourn, Berkshire, to see his brother, and that worries him.
When David has felt depressed, Mr Cecil has sometimes driven 140 miles to see him in the middle of the night in an attempt to raise his spirits. He said: "I see him as much as I can. Even now, David is always worrying about other people, asking me how my back is, how the horses are. He is the better half."
Mr Cecil, who is not a heavy drinker, has not had an alcoholic drink since the incident in July when his Mercedes struck and injured an elderly couple near his home, as he drove with his son and two other passengers. At first he lied to police, telling them that he had not been driving, but told the truth the next morning.
He was almost two and a half times over the legal limit but denied that he would have driven his son, another child and a friend while drunk. Anti-drink drive campaigners said his behaviour was inexcusable and that he should have been jailed.
For the past three months, Mr Cecil has been in almost constant pain after injuring his back in a fall on the gallops. He said: "I have had 12 weeks of hell which have left me feeling weak and tired. I have only been sleeping for an hour a night. I have never known pain like it."
By his own high standards, he has had a disappointing season and many of his horses have suffered from an infection. His tally of 61 wins is his lowest since 1976. Mr Cecil said that his private troubles meant that he had been unable to attend the yearling sales or carry out public relations for his stable. As a result, he expects to train about 140 horses next year, 30 down on this year.
He accepts that growing competition means he can no longer expect to be champion trainer every year. He said: "My priorities have changed. I want to be happy and I want peace. Racing is my life, but if I don't start enjoying it again, I will call it a day."
Mr Cecil, who last week escaped a jail sentence when he was convicted of a second drink-driving offence, was reduced to tears and sleepless nights by the breakdown of his second marriage, his twin brother's terminal cancer and his own battle for health after serious injury.
Mr Cecil said: "I don't think I could go through it all again." Mr Cecil said that he had considered abandoning Warren Place, the £8 million stables in Newmarket, Suffolk, where he has been champion Flat trainer 10 times and trained four Derby winners.
Mr Cecil said: "Some people can take things in their stride but I am sensitive. For me, molehills can turn into mountains, but the last year or so has been horrific, a time to forget."
Mr Cecil disclosed that despite their hopes of a reunion his eight-year marriage to his second wife, Natalie, a former stable employee, is effectively over. But he spoke of his admiration for the way that she has fought her addiction to Prozac, diet pills and alcohol so successfully that their son Jake, six, recently moved into her new London home. Mr Cecil said: "I married her because I love her and still do, and we are the greatest of friends. We will most probably never live together as man and wife but we will always be there for each other."
Related Articles
Mr Cecil, 57, married his wife, 33, in 1992, after their affair ended his marriage to his first wife, Julie, whose father, the late Sir Noel Murless, trained at Warren Place. "I want Natalie to be successful and happy. She is young and will be a strength to our son in his life when I am long gone," he said. Jake visits his father at weekends but moved to London "because a child should be with its mother".
For many in racing, Mr Cecil will always be a flawed genius, better at judging horse flesh than human character, more at home in his beloved rose garden than the focus of the television cameras.
Mr Cecil said that he had decided to speak exclusively to The Telegraph to put the record straight after being distressed by "false and hurtful" accusations about his estranged wife. They resurfaced in newspapers last week after he received a five-year driving ban and a £3,000 fine for his second drink-drive offence.
Mr Cecil said: "I strongly resent that, when things go wrong in my life, certain newspapers continually use Natalie as the excuse. This is not only unfair but untrue." He blamed many in racing for being unfriendly and aggressive towards her, when, in fact, she deserved praise for helping his career.
Mr Cecil said: "Newmarket is a very cliquey place and there were many who were either rude to her or would not accept her. She had so many nasty letters and telephone calls from people who did not understand or were determined to judge and pry into our private lives. They never gave her a chance." Speaking as he chain- smoked in his oak-panelled office, Mr Cecil said he had forgiven his estranged wife for her affair with a married jockey - disclosed by the News of the World in July last year - at a time when she felt "lonely and unhappy".
Mr Cecil said: "I have never blamed her for her hiccup and know she would never have wanted things to have happened that way." Days after the story appeared, Mr Cecil sacked Kieren Fallon, his stable jockey, although the Irishman, who is married with three children, later issued a statement denying that he was the jockey with whom Mrs Cecil had an affair.
Mrs Cecil, too, has forgiven her husband for the same paper's disclosure that he paid £800 to a prostitute while she was fighting her addictions at the Priory Clinic in south-west London last year. Mr Cecil said: "I was set up at a time when I was vulnerable and I didn't think. I felt dreadful about it."
He also spoke of the decision by Sheikh Mohammed, the world's richest racehorse owner, to remove his string of horses from Warren Place five years ago. While Newmarket gossips have blamed Mrs Cecil's interference for the Sheikh's removal of 40 thoroughbreds, Mr Cecil insisted that she was blameless.
Instead, he praised her for modernising the stables and said she deserved credit for much of his success in the 1990s. Mr Cecil said: "Sheikh Mohammed wanted to start up his own stable and it was as simple as that. It was nothing to do with Natalie." He said his estranged wife was a talented horsewoman who introduced innovative techniques.
The low point for Mr Cecil came when his twin brother, David, a recovering alcoholic, was diagnosed with cancer this year. "We have always been very close. They call him the the Iron Man in hospital because he is always so positive. I feel terrible because I am powerless to help." The driving ban will restrict visits to Lambourn, Berkshire, to see his brother, and that worries him.
When David has felt depressed, Mr Cecil has sometimes driven 140 miles to see him in the middle of the night in an attempt to raise his spirits. He said: "I see him as much as I can. Even now, David is always worrying about other people, asking me how my back is, how the horses are. He is the better half."
Mr Cecil, who is not a heavy drinker, has not had an alcoholic drink since the incident in July when his Mercedes struck and injured an elderly couple near his home, as he drove with his son and two other passengers. At first he lied to police, telling them that he had not been driving, but told the truth the next morning.
He was almost two and a half times over the legal limit but denied that he would have driven his son, another child and a friend while drunk. Anti-drink drive campaigners said his behaviour was inexcusable and that he should have been jailed.
For the past three months, Mr Cecil has been in almost constant pain after injuring his back in a fall on the gallops. He said: "I have had 12 weeks of hell which have left me feeling weak and tired. I have only been sleeping for an hour a night. I have never known pain like it."
By his own high standards, he has had a disappointing season and many of his horses have suffered from an infection. His tally of 61 wins is his lowest since 1976. Mr Cecil said that his private troubles meant that he had been unable to attend the yearling sales or carry out public relations for his stable. As a result, he expects to train about 140 horses next year, 30 down on this year.
He accepts that growing competition means he can no longer expect to be champion trainer every year. He said: "My priorities have changed. I want to be happy and I want peace. Racing is my life, but if I don't start enjoying it again, I will call it a day."
Sir Henry is a real gentleman. I remember a few years back being on the gallops to see a Diamond Racing horse at Newmarket. Some person came up and greeted us onlookers with a "Good Morning." I turned around and saw this old (looking) man and returned his greeting before I realised it was Sir Henry. He cracked a joke with us before going to see his team. A real gentleman and I will never forget it and even better - I've a photo to confirm the story to my granddaughter because I will be proud to tell her the story.
Say what you want... he is a genuine gentleman. I'm so glad he has the best horse in training.
Say what you want... he is a genuine gentleman. I'm so glad he has the best horse in training.
Why would you post that on this thread ICANTSTANDTHISFORUM? Do you visit people in hospital and remind them of their mistakes in life?
Henry is a living legend.
Hopefully has a few years left in him as that legend.
My dad died of cancer at age 64 and it is horrible to watch see a once strong, healthy, fit man die before you very eyes.
Henry's place in history is assured and it is well deserved.
Someone was looking after him because his Lazarus like comeback to the top of the training ranks has been truly wonderful
to witness, Frankel being the icing on the cake.
Hopefully has a few years left in him as that legend.
My dad died of cancer at age 64 and it is horrible to watch see a once strong, healthy, fit man die before you very eyes.
Henry's place in history is assured and it is well deserved.
Someone was looking after him because his Lazarus like comeback to the top of the training ranks has been truly wonderful
to witness, Frankel being the icing on the cake.
I wonder if one day the Americans will have a wonder horse named CECIL
Amazing man, and truly gifted trainer to have done what he has. It is so wonderful to see that after all his successes he has Frankel at this point in his career. I hope with everyone else that he gets better and has many more happy days ahead.
In what has become a cynical, frustrating sport in many ways, there are some that still light it up. Will never forget how emotional the day was when Light Shift won the Oaks to signal the beginning of Sir Henry's resurgence. He was fighting back the tears after getting such a reception when being interviewed and it had a knock-on effect on a huge number of people - both professionals and ordinary punters - who happened to be there.
The guy is a legend and a true gent. Well done Sir Henry.
In what has become a cynical, frustrating sport in many ways, there are some that still light it up. Will never forget how emotional the day was when Light Shift won the Oaks to signal the beginning of Sir Henry's resurgence. He was fighting back the tears after getting such a reception when being interviewed and it had a knock-on effect on a huge number of people - both professionals and ordinary punters - who happened to be there.
The guy is a legend and a true gent. Well done Sir Henry.
Was at York 2day, great to see Sir Henry there & to watch Frankel (The Wonder Horse) fly home in the Juddmonte by 7L 
My heart sunk when the GREAT MAN was interview after the race, does not look or sound well at all
Lets all hope the treatment works wonders for him, Frankels performance 2day would put more life into anyone, simply stunning performance, which is the norm from the best on the planet
Get well very soon Sir Henry xxx
My heart sunk when the GREAT MAN was interview after the race, does not look or sound well at all
Lets all hope the treatment works wonders for him, Frankels performance 2day would put more life into anyone, simply stunning performance, which is the norm from the best on the planet
Get well very soon Sir Henry xxx
Frankel: A career unfulfilled?
2 0 28
By Chris McGrath
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
To discover a want of courage in the genius who has supervised his career would be churlish. It is impossible, after all, to resist the sense that Frankel's emergence – as one of the great thoroughbreds in history – represents a concession prised from a destiny otherwise so cruel to his trainer. Sir Henry Cecil has shown such fortitude, in a six-year battle with cancer, that the dynamism and vitality of his champion almost seem expressive of the resilience, and dignity, abiding within his own enfeeblement.
Only the flint-hearted, then, will admit to exasperation that it has taken Cecil so long to risk any kind of gamble with Frankel. But the fact remains that the horse's unbeaten record, through 12 races, has been compiled entirely in his comfort zone. Only today, in what may prove his penultimate start, does Frankel venture into uncharted territory.
Even so, nobody is entertaining any possibility of defeat in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York – Frankel's first race over a mile and a quarter. But he has established such epoch- making quality, over a mile, that an extra two furlongs should scarcely enable another rival to bridge the gulf in class through mere dourness.
True, another great champion contrived to get beaten for the only time in this race, back in 1972. Brigadier Gerard was a sick horse, however, and Frankel will certainly start at microscopic odds, as usual. He was 1-20 for his last race, at Goodwood three weeks ago, and the best you can hope for today is around £3 for every £20 you risk.
Frankel was once so energetic that one professional, watching him on the gallops in the spring of last year, predicted burnout by midsummer. His fulfilment since can be traced to an increasingly relaxed approach – and so, in turn, to the mastery of his trainer. At the same time, however, it should not be sacrilegious to remark that Cecil has also discouraged exploration of Frankel's full capacity. In his element at Royal Ascot, Goodwood or York, he has never shown the slightest interest in introducing Frankel to fresh rivals, and a fresh challenge, abroad.
In fairness, Cecil has been abetted by the insularity that has disastrously undermined one of the boldest innovations of the modern British Turf. Unlike the ludicrous "Champions' Series", Qipco British Champions' Day itself has proved a thoroughly worthwhile concept. A ruinous misapprehension, however, is evinced by its scheduling – this year, as late as 20 October. That is just two weeks before the Breeders' Cup, in the United States, long established as the stage for the champions of Europe to test their status against new opposition, in an alien environment, before retiring to stud.
At the top level, Flat racing is an international sport. Its calendar enables British horses first to establish a pecking order within their own generation, in the Classics; then among the European elite, in such summer carnivals as the one starting at York today; and then, finally, on the world stage, whether at the Breeders' Cup, or elsewhere.
The race won by Frankel on the inaugural Champions' Day, last year, was historically staged in September – leaving an optimal interval to the Breeders' Cup. Kept around that time, then, the new Ascot day would maintain its stated purpose as climax of the domestic programme, while dovetailing with the international autumn. Instead, it has been crassly set up in direct competition, inviting horsemen to choose between twin obligations – one, to the local racing economy; the other, to the reputation of their horses. And the net result is likely to prove that Frankel, as last year, must stand idle for two months of his prime.
In four of his last eight races, Frankel has beaten a colt named Excelebration into second; in another, he had him back in third. Excelebration has proved himself top-class, in other races, and so persuaded everyone it is pointless to take on the champion – at least over a mile. Frankel was opposed at Goodwood last time by just three others, including his pacemaker.
Plenty of people at York today will claim they are looking at the greatest racehorse in history. Hitherto, however, the only measure of Frankel has been the increasing margins by which he has humiliated Excelebration. Yes, he finally tries something different today, partly because the race is sponsored by Khalid Abdullah, the Saudi prince who will be retiring Frankel to his Juddmonte Farms at the end of the season. But Cecil anticipates running him only once more, again on Champions' Day. In which case, he will leave us without beginning to approach the limits of his potential.
If Frankel can win easily today, then why not try him over another 352 yards in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe? If he is seriously proposed as the best horse ever, moreover, he would lap them at the Breeders' Cup – even in the Classic, on dirt. That would be the perfect climax for a horse named in honour of the late Bobby Frankel, who trained Prince Khalid's horses in the United States until his death in 2009.
Well, that certainly isn't going to happen. The idiotic scheduling of Champions' Day is one reason; but it is not as if Cecil needs excuses for his innate reluctance.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/racing/frankel-a-career-unfulfilled-...
2 0 28
By Chris McGrath
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
To discover a want of courage in the genius who has supervised his career would be churlish. It is impossible, after all, to resist the sense that Frankel's emergence – as one of the great thoroughbreds in history – represents a concession prised from a destiny otherwise so cruel to his trainer. Sir Henry Cecil has shown such fortitude, in a six-year battle with cancer, that the dynamism and vitality of his champion almost seem expressive of the resilience, and dignity, abiding within his own enfeeblement.
Only the flint-hearted, then, will admit to exasperation that it has taken Cecil so long to risk any kind of gamble with Frankel. But the fact remains that the horse's unbeaten record, through 12 races, has been compiled entirely in his comfort zone. Only today, in what may prove his penultimate start, does Frankel venture into uncharted territory.
Even so, nobody is entertaining any possibility of defeat in the Juddmonte International Stakes at York – Frankel's first race over a mile and a quarter. But he has established such epoch- making quality, over a mile, that an extra two furlongs should scarcely enable another rival to bridge the gulf in class through mere dourness.
True, another great champion contrived to get beaten for the only time in this race, back in 1972. Brigadier Gerard was a sick horse, however, and Frankel will certainly start at microscopic odds, as usual. He was 1-20 for his last race, at Goodwood three weeks ago, and the best you can hope for today is around £3 for every £20 you risk.
Frankel was once so energetic that one professional, watching him on the gallops in the spring of last year, predicted burnout by midsummer. His fulfilment since can be traced to an increasingly relaxed approach – and so, in turn, to the mastery of his trainer. At the same time, however, it should not be sacrilegious to remark that Cecil has also discouraged exploration of Frankel's full capacity. In his element at Royal Ascot, Goodwood or York, he has never shown the slightest interest in introducing Frankel to fresh rivals, and a fresh challenge, abroad.
In fairness, Cecil has been abetted by the insularity that has disastrously undermined one of the boldest innovations of the modern British Turf. Unlike the ludicrous "Champions' Series", Qipco British Champions' Day itself has proved a thoroughly worthwhile concept. A ruinous misapprehension, however, is evinced by its scheduling – this year, as late as 20 October. That is just two weeks before the Breeders' Cup, in the United States, long established as the stage for the champions of Europe to test their status against new opposition, in an alien environment, before retiring to stud.
At the top level, Flat racing is an international sport. Its calendar enables British horses first to establish a pecking order within their own generation, in the Classics; then among the European elite, in such summer carnivals as the one starting at York today; and then, finally, on the world stage, whether at the Breeders' Cup, or elsewhere.
The race won by Frankel on the inaugural Champions' Day, last year, was historically staged in September – leaving an optimal interval to the Breeders' Cup. Kept around that time, then, the new Ascot day would maintain its stated purpose as climax of the domestic programme, while dovetailing with the international autumn. Instead, it has been crassly set up in direct competition, inviting horsemen to choose between twin obligations – one, to the local racing economy; the other, to the reputation of their horses. And the net result is likely to prove that Frankel, as last year, must stand idle for two months of his prime.
In four of his last eight races, Frankel has beaten a colt named Excelebration into second; in another, he had him back in third. Excelebration has proved himself top-class, in other races, and so persuaded everyone it is pointless to take on the champion – at least over a mile. Frankel was opposed at Goodwood last time by just three others, including his pacemaker.
Plenty of people at York today will claim they are looking at the greatest racehorse in history. Hitherto, however, the only measure of Frankel has been the increasing margins by which he has humiliated Excelebration. Yes, he finally tries something different today, partly because the race is sponsored by Khalid Abdullah, the Saudi prince who will be retiring Frankel to his Juddmonte Farms at the end of the season. But Cecil anticipates running him only once more, again on Champions' Day. In which case, he will leave us without beginning to approach the limits of his potential.
If Frankel can win easily today, then why not try him over another 352 yards in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe? If he is seriously proposed as the best horse ever, moreover, he would lap them at the Breeders' Cup – even in the Classic, on dirt. That would be the perfect climax for a horse named in honour of the late Bobby Frankel, who trained Prince Khalid's horses in the United States until his death in 2009.
Well, that certainly isn't going to happen. The idiotic scheduling of Champions' Day is one reason; but it is not as if Cecil needs excuses for his innate reluctance.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/racing/frankel-a-career-unfulfilled-...
Why has ICANTSTANDTHISFORUM got a grudge against Henry Cecil ?
Only a complete and utter idiot would wish HRA anything but the best.
are you idiots so deluded to really believe watching a horse go around will insert more life into someone?
if that were the case, youtube should be a part of treatment ffs
if that were the case, youtube should be a part of treatment ffs
Incredibly sad sight to see him like that yesterday.
I know he'd spent a week in hospital just before the July Festival when I was down there, so it must be some intensive treatment he's on. Still out on the gallops at 6.30am though.
Wish him all the best, but he looked a very poorly man yesterday.
I know he'd spent a week in hospital just before the July Festival when I was down there, so it must be some intensive treatment he's on. Still out on the gallops at 6.30am though.
Wish him all the best, but he looked a very poorly man yesterday.
i think Henry made a special effort to be at york yesterday to see frankie run...Tá súil agam go raibh biseach ort gan mhoill
I hope you'll be back to yourself without delay
I hope you'll be back to yourself without delay
dont think that ICANTSTANDTHISFORUM posts really shows sir henry in a bad light , to me just illustrates that that natalie was no good , so what if he went with a prostitute for an evening. good luck greatest trainer ever
ps second coming, just new on this forum, probably a young newbee, the horse winning wont save someones life, but im certain that frankels performance was a quite a tonic for sir henry,
elisjohn,
After reading that post I thought ah, schools are on holiday.
After reading that post I thought ah, schools are on holiday.
IF EVER THERE NEEDED TO BE AN ADVERT FOR PEOPLE TO GIVE UP SMOKING,THEN POOR HENRY SHOULD BE IT,EVEN WHEN DIAGNOSED HE CONTINUED TO SMOKE.THE MAN IS A TRUE GENTLEMAN,HUMBLE YET A GIANT OF THE SPORT,EVERYONE IS HOPING HE PULLS THROUGH BUT I FEAR HE WILL BECOME ANOTHER VICTIM TAKEN TO SOON BY THE LOVE OF A CIGARETTE.
Only heard the interview on the radio and he sounded terrible.
Is it throat cancer?
Great man though.
Is it throat cancer?
Great man though.
shudacuda
Believe it is stomach cancer. I underwent chemo 2 years ago, and believe me it was a horrific experience. Probably it is the chemo causing his throat problems as i suffered with that. How he went racing feeling as he must do, i do not know. Fingers crossed for him, some people get through it.
hennigan1
poker
Believe it is stomach cancer. I underwent chemo 2 years ago, and believe me it was a horrific experience. Probably it is the chemo causing his throat problems as i suffered with that. How he went racing feeling as he must do, i do not know. Fingers crossed for him, some people get through it.
hennigan1
poker
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