The exceptionally gifted but ill-fated filly who could have been a female Frankel for Juddmonte

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Here he speaks to former Juddmonte racing manager Grant Pritchard-Gordon about the potential wonder filly - subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.

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In most years there are one or two exciting talents who are forced to miss the first Classics of the season due to a training setback or, worse still, a career-ending injury. It’s a sad fact of racing.

Already in 2024 the champion two-year-old filly Opera Singer has been announced as doubtful to line up in the 1,000 Guineas as she is behind in her work, and Fillies’ Mile runner-up Shuwari has been ruled out of the same race after meeting with a hitch at home.

Inspiral, Palace Pier and Too Darn Hot also had to sit out the Newmarket Classics in recent seasons, but at least they got their careers back on track, unlike notable absentees Storm Bird and Teofilo, who found redemption in the breeding shed instead.

One of the most frustrating cases of ‘what might have been’ occurred 25 years ago this spring, when the 1,000 Guineas ante-post favourite Bionic – who fleetingly resembled an earlier female version of Frankel for owner and breeder Khalid Abdullah – fractured her pelvis during a morning workout, causing her not just to miss Newmarket, but to be retired from racing altogether.

Mentioning Bionic in the same breath as Frankel might seem like hyperbole, even heresy, but consider this: when the Henry Cecil-trained daughter of Zafonic made her sole start, in the New Ham fillies’ maiden at Glorious Goodwood at two, she hardly had to break sweat to win by four lengths under Kieren Fallon.

The runner-up Musical Treat went on be Listed-placed, and produced dual 1,000 Guineas winner Finsceal Beo at stud, and third-placed Hula Angel – beaten five and a half lengths in total, in spite of having more racecourse experience – went on to win the Rockfel Stakes and Irish 1,000 Guineas.

The late Sir Henry Cecil: trainer of the ill-fated Bionic for Prince Khalid AbdullahCredit: Edward Whitaker

Bionic was awarded an eye-popping Racing Post Rating of 109 for that run, and was backed at all rates for the 1,000 Guineas over the summer, being joined at the head of ante-post lists by Bint Allayl after her clear-cut victory in the Lowther Stakes at York. Tragically, that filly would also miss the 1,000 Guineas, as she had to be put down after a freak gallops accident the following February.

Bionic was all set to put her towering reputation on the line in the Fillies’ Mile at Ascot, a race Cecil had won with subsequent Classic winners Bosra Sham and Reams Of Verse in two of the preceding three years, but was unable to take part in that, or Plan B of the Prix Marcel Boussac, due to a bruised foot.

Bionic was put away for the winter instead, but rumours swirled around Newmarket during the early months of 1999 that the foot problems had recurred, leading to Bint Allayl displacing her as favourite for the 1,000 Guineas.

It later transpired that the filly had to have a corn removed from one of her feet in February, but she was said to have been back doing faster work, and impressing connections during it, for around three weeks before her pelvis injury.

Cecil was left scratching around for another 1,000 Guineas filly as compensation for Abdullah, and came up with Wince, who had managed to finish only seventh behind Hula Angel in the Rockfel and was apparently left trailing in Bionic's wake on the gallops. 

The understudy, a daughter of Selkirk, became the leading lady by winning the Fred Darling Stakes by clear water and defeating 21 rivals to land the 1,000 Guineas. This was Cecil at his brilliant best.

Wince: understudy for Bionic and winner of the 1,000 Guineas for Juddmonte in 1999Credit: Edward Whitaker

One can't help but wonder that if the trainer could achieve that with a filly who was very good but by no means great, what might he have done with the blisteringly quick Bionic if she had stayed sound? The true extent of her untapped potential boggles the mind.

Grant Pritchard-Gordon, who was serving his last months as Juddmonte racing manager in the spring of 1999 before his retirement from the role, says the Frankel comparison isn’t an exaggeration.

“She genuinely gave us that feel of being a great horse, like Frankel turned out to be,” he says. “People often say this or that horse might have been a superstar, and it’s not always true, but in this case it wouldn’t have been a stupid suggestion.

“Henry had always thought the world of her, and when I saw her in her early work she looked nice, but it was only when she got to Goodwood that it became apparent just how special she was.

“She absolutely hacked up, and from good horses. I remember Kieren Fallon was grinning ear to ear when he dismounted, and said he couldn’t believe how good she felt. Henry was terribly excited going into her Classic season.”

Pritchard-Gordon had passed the baton to Teddy Grimthorpe by the time Bionic broke down on the gallops, inadvertently leaving his successor with bad news to break to the boss in his first few weeks on the job.

Teddy Grimthorpe took over as Juddmonte racing manager from Pritchard-GordonCredit: Alan Crowhurst

“I wasn’t around, but I was told Bionic trounced Wince in a piece of work on Racecourse Side, and then it all went wrong, but Wince came out and won the 1,000 Guineas in good style,” he continues.

“For that reason I always looked all around the world for relations to Bionic in my role as a bloodstock agent. I have to say, she didn’t actually found a dynasty like I thought she would, but she had some success at stud and her wider family is still producing lots of winners; she’s related to Westover, for example.”

Bionic was the first foal out of the Rainbow Quest mare Bonash, who won three Group races and ran fifth behind Balanchine in the Oaks for Andre Fabre, and would later also produce high-class middle-distance performer Day Flight and Prestige Stakes winner Sense Of Joy.

Bonash was in turn out of the Nijinsky mare Sky Love, a dual winner whose other daughter Media Nox became a key broodmare for Juddmonte, winning Pattern races on either side of the Atlantic and becoming the dam of Prix de Diane and Prix du Moulin heroine Nebraska Tornado and Group scorers Burning Sun and Mirabilis, the last-named being the dam of Irish Derby and Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud victor Westover.

Sky Love was meanwhile out of the Round Table mare Gangster Of Love, making her a half-sister to Raft – named, with a nod to his dam, in honour of the actor George Raft, who often played mob bosses – and a Group 2 winner who finished third behind Palace Music and Pebbles in the Champion Stakes.

Bionic herself produced eight winners before her death aged 20 in 2016, though only three with black type: Phoenix Tower (by Chester House), who won all his three starts at three before suffering from his own injury problems, but came back to finish second in four Group 1s before retiring to stud in India; Biometric (by Bated Breath), who was Group 3-placed in Australia; and Diplomatic Agent (by Deputy Minister), Listed-placed in Canada.

A quarter of a century since she looked like the second coming, her descendants have fallen a little out of fashion. In fact, her last two daughters to have gone through the ring, Almeda (by Champs Elysees) and Red Herring (by Empire Maker), achieved prices of €2,500 and $3,500.

The situation has not been helped by Bionic’s earliest daughters to stud disappointing by not producing any black-type horses.

But, out of nowhere on Monday, the family sprang back into life when maternal granddaughter Butterfly Jasmine won a Newcastle maiden on debut for Brian Ellison rather cosily, despite being sent off the 22-1 outsider in a field of six.

Butterfly Jasmine, by late Tweenhills sire Havana Gold, was bred by jockey Henry Brooke out of Winter Bloom, a winning daughter of Aptitude and Bionic bought by Elwick Stud for 7,500gns from the Juddmonte draft at the Tattersalls February Sale of 2015. 

If she has a fragment of the immense talent that Bionic showed on her one start before fate intervened, she could be alright. 

What do you think?

Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com

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