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STEVE DENNIS |
Weblog: Desperate measures for desperate times
Frankel-ly a sight to make the heart sing
Sometimes even a jaundiced old misanthrope such as my bad self sees something that puts a smile on his face.
Did you see that Frankel? Did you see him?
I have watched horses run up and down for almost 30 years and I can think of only two two-year-olds who have produced a performance of such potential and excitement - Arazi and Celtic Swing. That's the standard we have here.
You can talk all you like about the paucity of opposition both at Ascot and Doncaster, and it must be said that the Royal Lodge Stakes was a Group 2 contest in name only.
But Frankel ran them down turning for home without knowing it, and when Tom Queally moved his hands his mount drew ten lengths clear in the manner of a top-class horse.
Now, two-year-olds aren't champions any more than the star of school sports day is an Olympic athlete, and there have been signs for several years that the juvenile Pattern is wearing out its usefulness, but Frankel certainly looks like a superstar. A lashing, slashing hunk of horse, he looks the part and acts it too.
Unbeaten in three starts, he has never come off the bridle, and there isn't a two-year-old in Europe in the same parish at the moment. What Tom Queally said in the aftermath rings true: "I don't know yet whether he has it all, but he appears to have a lot of it."
Doesn't he just.
The way he drew clear of his rivals was truly a beautiful thing, the kind of thing you don't see every day, every year. Harbinger who? I have forgotten him already.
Of course, barely have our eyebrows descended to their normal position and our jaws clicked back into place than we are obliged to define him in terms of what he might be.
He's hot favourite for the Guineas, he's hot favourite for the Derby, he's just a hot favourite, frankel-ly, at least until he cools down a little.
Henry Cecil has doubts about his chance of staying the Derby trip - the Guineas trip is understandably less of a concern - and on breeding his doubts hold water.
Frankel is by Galileo, whose influence for stamina is a given thing, having won two Derbys himself and sired the winner of another in New Approach. So far, he stays so far. His damside is where the doubts originate.
Frankel's mummy Kind was a fast horse, never won beyond 7f, and although she is by the all-things-to-all-men Danehill she is by no means a hot prospect as dam of a Derby winner.
She's a half-sister to Powerscourt, whose best trip was 1m2f, so ifyou were looking for straws to clutch you'd get a handful there.
So any tendency to be dogmatic must be curbed. Frankel stays a mile, will probably stay 1m2f, may stay 1m4f. I'm not going to worry too much about that yet.
I don't mind if he never wins again. I'll be using that Ascot performance as a benchmark well into my dotage. I'll probably need something to smile about then; Frankel will do nicely.
Read my column in the Racing Postevery Sunday
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