Animal Kingdom aiming to reign supreme like Frankel

Animal Kingdom is the first Kentucky Derby winner to race at Royal Ascot since Omaha in 1936. Picture: PA

Frankel enjoyed an imperious 11-length triumph in the Queen Anne Stakes last year on his way to becoming the world’s highest-rated racehorse.

The memory of that explosive victory will have extra poignancy following the death last week of Frankel’s trainer Henry Cecil, who trained a record 75 Royal Ascot winners over four decades.

Animal Kingdom will be the first Kentucky Derby winner to race at Royal Ascot since the Triple Crown winner Omaha raced in the Ascot Gold Cup in 1936. “I’ll never train another one like him – the horse has had a chequered career because of his injuries so it is all the more remarkable how he has kept his form,” Animal Kingdom’s British-born trainer Graham Motion said of the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner.

“Royal Ascot is a bonus for me because I thought Dubai was his last race. I feel very fortunate that these guys have taken on this very sporting challenge at Royal Ascot. It’s tremendous to be running in a race that Frankel won last year and Sir Henry Cecil was one of the people I admired the most when growing up in Newmarket so it’s quite emotional.”

Animal Kingdom, who will start a hot favourite and is by far the highest-rated horse in the Queen Anne, has never raced over a straight mile course that he will encounter at Ascot. Motion said they were going into “unchartered territory” with a horse that has not run since March’s Dubai success.

“There are so many variables. The weather, distance and doing the training here are all different. Animal Kingdom is a really laidback horse, like an old steep-lechaser,” he said.

The Queen Anne is the first of three successive Group One races to start the prestigious five-day meeting, with the King’s Stand Stakes followed by the St James’s Palace Stakes in which Epsom Derby flop Dawn Approach attempts to restore his lofty reputation.

Ascot will honour and celebrate the memory of Cecil by naming the Queen’s Vase, run on Friday, after the trainer. Cecil’s wife Jane, who has temporarily taken over the training licence, is set to have a runner in the race.

The words of Sir Henry remain fresh in Henry Ponsonby’s memory as the owner looks forward to having two major players in the Ascot Stakes.

Ponsonby has the lightly-raced Tiger Cliff, now in the care of Lady Cecil, and Lieutenant Miller under the supervision of champion jumps trainer Nicky Henderson. Both are leading fancies for the long-distance handicap over two-and-a-half miles, and Ponsonby is understandably torn between the pair.

However, he recalls what the legendary trainer said about both horses back in April. “Henry was at Newbury when Lieutenant Miller finished second on his penultimate start,” said Ponsonby.

“He was staying with me and that evening he was sitting on my sofa and he said he liked that horse Lieutenant Miller but he wouldn’t win the Ascot Stakes.

“I asked him why, and he said he’d got a horse in his yard that will win it. I asked what it was called and he said that I owned it. It was Tiger Cliff. He said he’d have one race and go straight to Ascot.

“Tiger Cliff is relatively inexperienced, but improving very fast. If he stays the two-and-a-half miles I think he’ll win.”