Royal Ascot 2011 - Frankel leaves it late to win St. James’s Stakes, Sir Henry Cecil basks in glory
Sir Henry Cecil’s three-year old bay colt master piece, Frankel, did it once again at the English Grade One St. James’s Stakes and won a huge purse of £250,000 ($406,928), the third race on the Royal Ascot opening day.
Frankel extends his unbeaten run by wrapping up the St. James’s Stakes with seven wins in as many starts. Making him the most talked-about horse in the world. Frankel’s six-length winning margin at the Qatari Investments and Projects Group Company (QIPCO) 2000 Guineas Grade One was absolutely terrifying but here at the St. James’s Stakes it looked as if his pace could be matched with winning odds of 3 to 10 favourite.
Winning by three quarters of a length, the Galileo colt looked catchable in this particular race. Stable mate Rerouted opened up a considerable gap and ran to the front of the pack and allowed Frankel to set his sights on him for an initial gallop.
Rerouted was tracked by the Japanese colt, Grand Prix Boss, who sprinted two gain second position and Dubawi Gold assumed third position.
Frankel was cruising down the race course with Dream Ahead but passed the half-mile marker, Frankel got bored of the routine and decided to change the game by galloping furiously towards his pacemaker Rerouted, who had gained several lengths, by that time.
Shortly after the bend Frankel gave his maximum and went past his stable mate to assume the leading position. It was all going according to plan but after getting into the lead Frankel decided to drop a few paces and he seemed relaxed at the front.
This gave the pursuers a glimmer of hope to overtake the champion colt, and, one horse that stood out in doing so was Zoffany, ridden by Ryan Moore, who was holding up the rear made an exciting run towards the leader but fell short by half a length to the winner Frankel ridden by Tom Queally and finished second.
Frankel held on and landed the St. James’s Stakes, it wasn’t as emphatic as the dismissal of Klammer by ten lengths at the 2000 Guineas but a win is a win. Tom Queally said that they were in control at all times and the horse settled soundly into the pace.
Sir Henry Cecil, the newest horse racing knight, said that he must have gotten bored at the front but he is getting older and wiser now and he knew that he had done enough.
The next meeting could turn out to be the clash of the season as Sir Henry Cecil said that we could be meeting Queen Anne Stake’s winner Canford Cliffs and the runner up Goldikova. It will be some race when these top horses compete to out run each other. It could be the Sussex Stakes or the Juddmonte International.
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