Queally insists he was riding to instructions

TOM QUEALLY, who has come in for some stick for his premature move on Frankel in the St James's Palace Stakes, has defended himself by insisting he was riding to instructions.

Queally has ridden the Sir Henry Cecil-trained superstar to victory on all seven starts, but his sizeable winning distance in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas was reduced to a fast-diminishing three quarters of a length at Royal Ascot.

The jockey, underfire for his mid-race tactical move to rush Frankel past pacemaker Rerouted, said: "They fail to realise I was riding to instructions."

Speaking on a Racing UK Podcast, he added: "He was a bit workmanlike. The pacemaker went off quite quick. I crept closer and Henry was adamant that I should take it up before the bend and that's what we did.

"A lot of different things can happen in a race, but he won and that's the main thing. His career is still unblemished."

Queally is unlikely to beasked to ride Frankel in a similar fashion again, although he - like Cecil - was impressed with the tactical versatility the three-year-old showed.

He continued: "He has a lot of speed, but he settled well early on which means we tactically have more options with Frankel than at the start of the season, so that's a good thing. They got to three-quarters of a length off him but they did not go three-quarters ahead of him.

"I don't think there's any need to make a move on him, I can sit quiet on him and we'll have to see what happens in his next race."

That next race could be in the Sussex Stakes, in which the son of Galileo would be competing for the first time outside his own age-group with Queen Anne winner Canford Cliffs a possible opponent.

Queally is confident that Frankel would come out on top, but is not underestimating the threat Canford Cliffs poses the Frankel's unbeaten record.

"The time of our race was fairly quick but Canford Cliffs and Goldikovaput up a good show," he said.

"Personally I thought Canford would win. I always thought he would have the edge on her. But she's a super mare and her record speaks for itself.

"He's never been that impressive and does not win by large margins, but all horses can do is win despite some people expecting demolition jobs the whole time, but it's nice when there's a fight near the finish - it keeps people interested."