Frankel lands Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot
Sir Henry Cecil’s 4-year-old charge, Frankel, faced no difficultly in extending his unbeaten sequence to 11 starts. The bay colt was super impressive at Royal Ascot, where he clinched a comprehensive triumph in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes (British Champions
Series), held on Tuesday, June 19th.
On good to soft, eleven speedy runners stepped out on the course in search of the winning prize worth £198,485.00. Under Tom Queally, the 1-10 favourite maintained the highest standards all the way through, keeping himself prominent till the finishing line.
He tracked the leaders superbly in the early stages of the event. After doing a wonderful job in the middle hours, the maverick runner established his dominance a couple of furlongs before the wire.
Frankel was extremely impressive in the final furlong and despite the fact that his opponents tried their best, it was almost impossible for them to catch the champion runner. The Sir Henry Cecil-trained sealed the top rank by 11 lengths.
Excelebration’s misery continued, as it was his fifth defeat at the hands of Frankel. However, A. P. O’Brein’s trainee was lucky to finish second on the table, as Side Glance kept him under tremendous pressure in the final moments.
Although he had no chance of troubling the winning runner, he grabbed the second spot by a neck’s distance. Indomito managed to seize the fourth place while Windsor Palace completed the order of five.
Cecil was quite relieved to see his sprinter maintaining his unbeaten run and lavished special praise on the fantastic runner.
"It's a relief, I'm not surprised but relieved. There's no such thing as a certainty. He is a great horse and you've seen him for yourself, so everybody can form their own opinion,” Cecil said.
He continued: He did exactly what I thought, but he's still improving, Tom said he's still improving. He looks as if he'll stay a mile and a quarter so we'll leave our options open. He's in the Eclipse, the Sussex, he's in the Juddmonte and the two races
at the end of the year. He'll tell me what to do next. It's very unlikely he'll go to the Breeders' Cup."
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