Racing: Sold-out Ascot to bid Frankel a fond farewell

The going at the Berkshire track yesterday eased from soft all round to soft on the straight course and soft, heavy places on the round course after three millimetres of rain. Although a little more rain was expected overnight, dry conditions are forecast for race day.

“We will look at it in the morning. It depends what happens,” said Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to owner Khalid Abdullah. “What I have always said is that as long as we are happy the ground is safe for Frankel that will be our call. We are going to walk it and the intention is to run if we can.”

Frankel is unbeaten in 13 starts to date and the Qipco Champion Stakes over a mile and a quarter on the round course is likely to be his final racecourse appearance. Ascot is sold out in the anticipation of Frankel running and clerk of the course Chris Stickels is hoping the slight possibility of the colt being withdrawn will not materialise. “We desperately want Frankel to run,” he said last night. “We’ve had some rain this afternoon amounting to three millimetres and I’ve changed the ground to straight course soft, round course soft heavy in places. It is drying back but the showers are on and off until then. We are not expecting a lot more and then it should be a dry day tomorrow.”

Cecil conceded “the adrenalin is going” as the curtain looks set to come down on Frankel’s dazzling career.

Despite the four-year-old being crowned joint-champion juvenile in 2010 with Dream Ahead and the undisputed champion three-year-old last year, the ten-times champion trainer feels he is only now reaching his peak.

Asked how he felt ahead of Ascot, trainer Henry Cecil said: “The adrenalin is going, we’ve got him so far unbeaten and I’d like him to win at Ascot. He’s getting easier, he used to be difficult, used to pull a lot. He’s growing up, he’s like me – a late developer. Because he’s growing up he’s easier to train, so what I ask him to do he does it.

“He’s a better horse, he’s an improving horse. It’s been a great honour (to train Frankel), slightly nerve-wracking.”

Whereas Frankel only ran for the first time over ten furlongs in the Juddmonte International at York, Cirrus Des Aigles is as battle-hardened as they come, a fact which has not escaped Grimthorpe.

He said: “Cirrus Des Aigles has proved himself after the last two or three years. He’s the defending champion and he came out at Longchamp and was very impressive in the Group Two. Certainly he’s going to be a horse to be reckoned with.”

Trainer Corine Barande-Barbe believes Cirrus Des Aigles may also still be improving, even though he is now a six-year-old.

She said: “Every race he has run in, he always seems to take one step up and he always seems to look his best when he tries something new. We ran him over a mile and a quarter in last year’s Champion Stakes and we thought that was him at his best. Then we ran him over a mile and a half in Dubai, and it looked like that might be his best. Last year, he wasn’t even a Group 1 winner before the Champion Stakes. He won and he showed that the better the field, the better he is.”

Whatever happens today, Frankel has left a huge imprint on racing.

The colt’s breath-taking performances have touched the hearts of British audiences since his first win, as a two-year-old, in August 2010. Frankel set the bar high when he romped to his first Classic victory, in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in April 2011. At one stage, the colt was 15 lengths clear, sparking an outbreak of spontaneous applause from spectators, before crossing the line ahead by six lengths.

As a four-year-old, he has been even more dominant, winning the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot by 11 lengths in June and the International Stakes at York by seven lengths in August. It was an unprecedented eighth straight European Group 1 win and lifted his rating with Timeform – a company that rates performances by horses – to 147, its highest ever mark.

Only Dancing Brave, winner of the 2,000 Guineas and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, has been rated higher by handicappers at the British Horseracing Authority.

“It’s for others to sum him up, but we’ll remember him with fantastic fondness as really the ultimate equine athlete,” concluded Grimthorpe. “I’m biased, but I think he’s the best there has ever been.”

Cecil has been training horses for 43 years and regards Frankel not only as the best horse he has handled but the best he has ever seen.

“This horse came to him as a very raw, exuberant talent and he’s been able to harness this exuberance, he’s been able to control the powder keg and do himself justice,” said BBC commentator Jim McGrath, who will call Frankel’s last race. “It’s quite an art – a display of a great artist at work.

“He’s a phenomenon. Most champions are capable of producing a supreme effort once or twice, or maybe three times in their career.

“But this horse has consistently produced these earth-shattering performances.”