Frankel cements classic favouritism
Frankel roared to odds-on favouritism for the 2000 Guineas as he lived up to all the hype as a clear-cut winner of the Dubai Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.
Henry Cecil had made no secret of the regard in which he held the Galileo colt and he justified those expectations as the 4-6 market leader.
Pace-setter Roderic O’Connor ran a big race to claim second with Glor Na Mara third, but both Dream Ahead and Saamidd proved disappointing.
William Hill cut Frankel to 4-5 favourite for the Guineas from 2-1. The Leeds-based firm go 2-1 from 7-2 about Frankel for the Derby.
Johnny Murtagh was keen to get to the front aboard Roderic O’Connor and he set a fair pace as Tom Queally struggled to get Frankel to settle towards the back of the six-runner field.
Saamidd was also racing keenly while Dream Ahead sat on their heels in last in the seven-furlong contest.
Roderic O’Connor was still in front two furlongs out but the distress signals were already out for Saamidd while Frankel was just starting to motor down the middle of the track.
Queally gave him the signal inside the distance and he produced an excellent turn of foot to assume control and quickly pull two and a quarter lengths clear.
Roderic O’Connor kept on gamely for the runner-up prize but Dream Ahead had no reply and Saamidd was well out of the frame.
Queally said: “He’s a superstar, and it’s nice to have done it when it mattered. He’s done it well and he’s very special.
“He got a bit of a bump on leaving stalls and that set him alight, but he quickened up well and put the race to bed. He wandered a bit off a true line on the ground, but we’ll forgive him that!”
Cecil added: “He’d been relaxing well at home but that bump set him alight - in his work he is very relaxed, but when you get a nasty bump like that it makes a difference.
“But he won very well and he never had to hit him. It was lovely and I’m very lucky to have him.”
Cecil continued: “I’m hopeful that he will make a Guineas horse and maybe the St James’s Palace, whether he will get further we’ll have to see and I’ll need to talk to the Prince (Khalid Abdullah, owner) about that.
“I’ve never had a horse work like him as a two-year-old and the last one I remember who was similar would be Arazi. He goes into a sixth gear.
“If he was a Formula One car he’d win everything unless I was driving him!”
Dream Ahead’s trainer David Simcock said of the hitherto unbeaten Middle Park winner: “It might have just come too quick, he just never picked up.”
