Frankelstein awakens from winter slumber

By Alan Conway

And so he is back. The long lingering wait for the return of Frankel is over and we can look forward to the 2011 flat season with renewed optimism as Frankel confirmed his wellbeing with a ready dismissal of his opponents in the Greenham Stakes last Saturday at Newbury.

During the winter and the early part of the spring we had heard the stories about how well Frankel was doing. How he had filled into his frame and had begun to relax more. There was even the story about how he out sped a train one morning on the Newmarket gallops. But Saturday was the acid test.

Many a highly successful two year old has failed to fire as a three year old. Just cast your mind back to St Nicholas Abbey. For Frankel he has passed his first major test of the most important year in his racing career.

The Greenham confirmed everything that we saw last year. There were the hard pulling tendencies. The refusal to fully settle for Tom Queally. But there was also the hugely impressive turn of foot and the ludicrous way that he cruises through a race.

When asked to go about his business the response was not instant. But he can be forgiven as this was his first run of the season. What impressed me however was the clear change of gear that he showed and the way, when asked to quicken up, he went about it. It took Queally about two furlongs to pull Frankel up after the Greenham.

Afterwards the jockey was very pleased “He did it well,” said Queally. “It’s the first run of the season and he’s entitled to improve a great deal from that. The biggest problem I had was pulling him up. That’s his trial and it’s nice he’s won it

Trainer Henry Cecil was equally as happy “It was very satisfactory. The weather messed up his preparations; I’ve not let him off the bit at home. This will do him the world of good, Tom thought he was about 80 per cent fit and there is loads to work on.” If there is loads to work on then the rest of the 2000 Guineas field will be fighting it out for second place.

Looking ahead to the first classic of the season there are a lot of things in Frankel’s favour as he tries to emulate a former Cecil inmate in Wollow who completed the Greenham Guineas double in 1976. Aside from his freakish ability it seems clear that when Frankel finally gets a genuine strong gallop we will see him at his very best. More often than not the pace is very strong at Newmarket.

He is also match fit both physically and mentally while many of his rivals like Roderic O Connor will be having their first runs of the season. It’s hard to imagine that if the real Frankel he will be beaten. He is due to start the shortest price favourite of the 2000 Guineas since Nijinsky. He has to earn the right to be spoken in the same breath as that horse. His starting point is Newmarket. A new legend could be unleashed upon us.

By Alan Conway