'When Frankel crossed the line I was shaking so much I couldn't walk'

On the morning of April 30, 2011, most among the 16,000 racegoers bound for Newmarket set off with a knot in their stomach. It promised to be the day of days as Frankel, the previous year’s juvenile comet, strove to stretch his unbeaten streak to six races in the 2,000 Guineas.

It was Frankel’s juvenile exuberance that promised so much. His ten-length stroll in the Royal Lodge Stakes had spectators shaking their heads in disbelief, and there remained a tantalising prospect he might advance on that. This was the day when hope would either soar effortlessly on the wing or plummet headlong into the turf.

Simon Holt, who was commentating for Channel 4 Racing that day, left home with a sense of expectation. “Because of what Frankel had done at two, and then in winning the Greenham Stakes [on his three-year-old debut], most of us realised we were potentially going to see something special,” he recalls.