Every so often in harness racing a champion horse comes along that transcends the sport.
Horses like Courage Under Fire, Shakamaker and Lazarus draw people from outside the sport in. It is their ability to compete that does it.
On the racetrack, Come On Frank won 61 races from 130 starts, which is certainly not a meagre achievement, but wouldn’t necessarily qualify him for champion status.
However, ‘Frank’, as he is known to so many, transcended the sport into the hearts and minds of countless fans.
Born on Darren and Julie Billinger’s property at Two Wells in South Australia, at only a couple of days of age the Blissful Hall colt was part of the family, standing on his hind legs and wrapping them around the Billinger’s daughters Jodie and Kelly. From that moment forward, Frank remained entwined in the family’s journey.
“He just put his feet over their shoulders, it is unbelievable and have a hug, and that was at one or two days old,” Darren Billinger said on today’s edition of Trots Life on SEN Track.
At age Frank had amassed 12 wins from 19 starts when, tragically, Kelly Billinger was killed in a car accident while travelling to Melbourne. Three months later Frank won the South Australian Southern Cross final, the race the family had dreamed of capturing.
The story of Frank, and what he meant to the family, was well told at the time, and his own facebook page brought him ever closer to the public. Not just the trotting public but to many other families that had suffered tragedies in their lives.
“I’d say at least 30 to 40 people that would private message Frank (on Facebook) very, very often and talk about their personal stories and their struggles, people that had lost children, and he got a lot of people through, not just our family,” Darren told Trots Life.
In 2012, as a four-year-old, he went on to win a Mount Gambier Cup, the Victorian Sires Stakes and a memorable win in the Dudley Justice at Globe Derby in front of a crowd of 6000, which provided a reception that has been unparalleled since for the people’s champion Frank.
“When I came back to scale I looked up at the stand and everybody was on their feet, because they all knew the story.”
CLICK BELOW FOR THE FULL STORY OF COME ON FRANK AS HEARD ON TROTS LIFE
