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Sir Henry Cecil would be a little perplexed at his induction into British Flat Racing’s Hall of Fame, according to the late trainer’s wife, Lady Jane Cecil.
For Cecil, one of the most respected trainers ever to grace the Turf, never quite understood the adulation he was afforded or the esteem in which he was held by his adoring public.
"I'm thrilled. I am really delighted," said Lady Cecil. "Obviously I'm biased, but I do think he is a very worthy choice. I'm hopeful that he will be a very popular recipient.
"Henry was quite modest. He never understood his popularity and he never read anything. When there was an article in the paper, I would always read it, but he never read any of it.
"I'm sure he would have been surprised. He would probably have said, 'Whose idea was that?'.
"When he was knighted, his first reaction was to turn to me and say: 'Now, that means you can be a Lady'. That was his thing. He always wanted to make life for other people happier."
Cecil is just the second trainer to be inducted after Vincent O'Brien and it comes 10 years after Frankel's final racecourse appearance at Qipco British Champions Day, where he won the Champion Stakes having taken the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes the year before.
The unbeaten Frankel, of course, is perhaps the most famous of Cecil's training success stories in a career that started in 1969 and brought 25 domestic Classic winners and 10 trainers' titles.
Responsible for many titans of the Turf such as Wollow, Kris, Le Moss, Ardross, Slip Anchor, Oh So Sharp, Reference Point, Indian Skimmer, Bosra Sham, Oath and Reams Of Verse, things came easily to Cecil early on.
However, professional success all came to a crashing halt with the removal of Sheikh Mohammed's horses from the yard in 1995. Allied to the death of twin brother David, from cancer, five years later and the breakdown of his second marriage, the blows took a major toll.
"That was the most remarkable thing about him," said Lady Cecil. "In the seventies and eighties, it all just flowed, it was all so effortless, wasn't it?
"He didn't handle the break up and the divorce very well, but the thing that hit him the most was the death of David. He just didn't handle it at all. The joy went out of his life and the focus went."
Between July 2000 and October 2006, Cecil failed to train a winner in any Group One race and in 2005 he saddled just a dozen winners overall. His stable of 200 horses shrank to barely 50 and he began to talk of retirement.
"When you go down to the level he went to, it takes a heck of a lot of courage to get that back," said Lady Cecil.
"The lows make you appreciate the highs. That was the thing about it. He probably took it a little bit for granted when it was all flowing."
Cecil was just returning to prominence when diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2006. The following year, he trained his 24th Classic winner when Light Shift landed the Oaks.
"He got it all back and going, and then he got the diagnosis. Can you imagine? It was the biggest shock of my life," said Lady Cecil.
"I sat there in the consultant's room and thought, 'He's not going to get through this, if he can't handle the death of his brother…', but nothing could have been further from the truth.
"He had such a positive outlook. He was told it wasn't curable, but it was manageable. He believed that staying positive and having that will to live, that would make a difference.
"We all believed it because he did. He never liked to talk about it, though.
"He used to write letters to lots of people and he would say, 'Just think happy thoughts, stay positive and live your life'.
"People still say to me, 'I've still got that letter Henry wrote to me and it helped me'."
Light Shift's Epsom win under Ted Durcan in 2007 and marriage to Jane (nee McKeown) gave him the fillip he needed.
"When Light Shift won the Oaks, the reception he got that day, you could actually feel the love – it sounds corny, but that is what it felt like. He didn't get it," said Lady Cecil.
"You'd never see Henry cry, but he shed a few tears that day with the reception he got, although he didn't understand the public's affection.
"I know we had all those Frankel days, where people were showing they were just happy he was back, but days like that get lost a bit. He really did appreciate it."
Courage is like a bank account. You start with so much. Every time a horse races, every time a boxer fights, or a jockey falls, they are writing a cheque.
You do not always know what is in that account. The hunger drives them, yet it is the nerve which stops them.
Nothing would stop Cecil. He never lost the hunger or the nerve, trusting his instincts, particularly with Frankel who was exuberant in the early days.
Thanks in no small part to his work-rider Shane Fetherstonhaugh and Cecil's experience, Frankel scaled peaks that will seldom be challenged in future, remaining unbeaten in his 14-race career, including 10 Group Ones.
The image of the colt's devastating power in both Royal Ascot's Queen Anne Stakes and York's Juddmonte International in particular are certain to be remembered for decades.
The Prince Khalid Abdullah-owned son of Galileo gave his trainer a reason to live.
"We were so lucky that Prince Khalid sent Frankel to Henry," said Lady Cecil. "It enabled Henry to go out on a real high.
"None of us knew how good he was going to be.
"Henry loved him. Frankel wanted to get on with it and Henry had to try to get him to relax.
"It was wonderful to see how much pleasure it gave him to train Frankel, how he could harness all that talent.
"Henry couldn't explain any of that, he had a feel, an instinct and all that experience over 40 years – he just knew what to do with him.
"Can you imagine a trainer having such an exciting horse as Frankel?"
No doubt William Haggas will be feeling a few butterflies ahead of Baaeed's swansong in the Qipco Champion Stakes, for he too is similarly expected to retire to stud unbeaten after a stellar career.
Yet Lady Cecil says her husband never felt any nerves ahead of Frankel's races, despite the public's expectations.
"His work was exceptional," she said. "Henry was helped by what he saw in the mornings.
"When a horse is doing what he is doing at home in the mornings, it fills you with confidence.
"If a horse has done something you've never seen when you have been training for 40 years, if he saw what he could do, I don't think he was nervous – he was just excited thinking about what the horse was going to do and he read the signs a horse was giving him."
Lady Cecil is still understandably emotional when talking about her husband and the battle that he bore so gracefully, with such humility and dignity right until the end, which came eight months after Frankel's retirement.
"It was so sad that he got his life back together and then… it was so sad, because he had a lot more to give," Lady Cecil said.
"But he didn't let it get him down. The thing was he showed such commitment to his training, right up to the end.
"He didn't think it was going to end. There were days when he was so ill, yet he managed to get up when you couldn't believe he would get up and go out into the yard. If it was cold, dark, wet – he would be out there.
"I'm sure training prolonged his life. He would always want to get up in the morning to see Frankel."
She added: "To lose anyone is very difficult. When somebody dies, it is very hard. But Henry was so special. He loved his life so much and he made your life and wanted you to enjoy yours.
"He did so many kind things – so many small, kind things. I could not imagine what life would be without him."
Lady Cecil took over the reins briefly upon Henry's death, including saddling Noble Mission to a Group One success in the 2014 Champion Stakes.
She took a back seat the following year and now spends her time as a doting grandmother to two boys, aged eight and four, and raises money for the East Anglian Children's Hospice (EACH), via Discover Newmarket, who offer Frankel tours.
"I have so much to be grateful to Prince Khalid for, because it was through his loyalty that we got Frankel," she said of the Juddmonte Farms owner-breeder, who died last year. "He and Henry had such a special bond.
"I was so lucky to have that time with Henry. I was lucky to be alongside him when he was training Frankel. I was lucky to have the times we had.
"And I'm sure he will be very proud of his induction to the Hall of Fame – but he'll probably still be trying to work out why."
