Frankel gives fillip to Cecil on his road to recovery

Unbeaten in 13 starts after turning the Juddmonte International, York’s richest race, into a procession with a blistering burst of acceleration after lengthening his imperious stride, the freakish four-year-old is likely to be competing for the final time on a racecourse; a potential £100m career at stud will beckon after Ascot’s showpiece race.

The Prince Khalid Abdullah-owned equine superstar is set to face just five rivals, including stablemate, work companion and pacemaker Bullet Train, on ground which will be the heaviest that he has encountered in a perfect career – but this did not prevent the in-form William Buick, who rides the Eclipse and King George winner Nathaniel, from declaring that Frankel is “unbeatable”.

Such an assessment will certainly boost the spirits of Cecil, who has a stud at Helmsley in North Yorkshire and who has had to oversee much of Frankel’s training from his sick bed after undergoing several bouts of debilitating chemotherapy to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma which was first diagnosed five years ago.

However, amid scenes of unparalleled emotion on a Yorkshire racetrack, racing’s grandee defied the doctors to attend York’s Ebor festival – it was the first time that Frankel had raced over a mile and a quarter – and the trainer’s pencil-thin appearance shocked many. His faltering voice was barely audible while a black fedora masked the ravages of his latest cancer treatment.

The stepson of Sir Cecil Charles Boyd-Rochfort, the five-times champion trainer, 69-year-old Cecil still intends to be at Ascot 
tomorrow for Frankel’s finale after a more recent spell in hospital.

“I am so lucky to have been allocated Frankel to train. He has been an inspiration and challenge, which I really needed so badly,” said Cecil who has also battled back from a training slump that saw him saddle just 12 winners in 2005 before 2007 Oaks winner Light Shift signified a change of luck.

“Through my illness, I feel that the help from my wife Jane and the determination to be there for Frankel has helped me so much to get through the season.

“Every sport needs champions, you know? Champions bring in interest from people who aren’t necessarily racing people, and he has really caught the imagination of the public, which I think is marvellous.

“You know, the housewife who isn’t a racing person has heard of Frankel, they’ve heard of Frankel – when he’s running they watch him. The reception he’s been getting when they clap him when he comes into the parade ring… I mean, York was amazing.

“The Yorkshire racing fraternity love racing, love seeing good horses and they appreciate good horses, and I was very pleased I could take him there because I love Yorkshire. They deserved to see him, and it was a great day. I’d just come out of hospital, could hardly walk, but I enjoyed it.”

Despite earning the respect of the entire racing fraternity for the way he has tamed the notoriously feisty Frankel, modest Cecil said yesterday that much of the credit should go the horse’s daily work rider who handles the white-faced champion on Newmarket’s gallops.

“What Frankel has achieved during the past year is outstanding but I would not like to take all the praise,” said Cecil as he acknowledged the team effort behind the horse who takes his name from the legendary US racing trainer Bobby Frankel.

“There are a lot of people at Warren Place who have all played their part with Frankel and I really appreciate everyone’s efforts – not least Shane Fetherstonhaugh’s. This season, Shane has ridden Frankel entirely at home. I’ve managed his training schedule and preparation, but Shane has carried out the orders to perfection. So, perhaps, it could be said that we – Shane and I – have trained Frankel together.”

Tomorrow’s 10-furlong race, the same distance as York’s Juddmonte, is not the formality that the 35,000-strong crowd expect; the heavy going adds an element of doubt that the trainer acknowledged. “I am pretty confident he will be fine in soft ground, but if it’s heavy we are in no man’s land,” added Cecil. “I cannot be sure that he would appreciate it.”

Aside from the aforementioned Bullet Train, Frankel will face last year’s winner Cirrus Des Aigles, who is trained in France by Corine Barande-Barbe; the William Haggas-trained Master Of Hounds; German Derby winner Pastorius, who will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, and John Gosden’s Nathaniel, who will relish the testing conditions.

Nathaniel, who swerved the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe earlier this month with an infection, was beaten just half a length when he – and Frankel – made their respective, and very competitive, debuts at Newmarket in 2010, ironically on soft ground.

However, 24-year-old Buick, riding on the crest of a wave after eight Group One winners in a vintage 2012 that has seen him come of age and accrue more than £3m of prize money, believes he will be fighting for second place at best.

“He (Frankel) has been fantastic for racing,” said the jockey. “Obviously we’re all going out to beat him, but he’s unbeatable. No one can beat him, and I think on Saturday he’ll go out and do what he always does.

“Deep down I hope he does, because if he goes out on a high it will be magnificent for racing.

“Obviously I’m there to try and beat him, but Frankie Dettori said to me last night ‘get real, it’s not going to happen’.”

Those due to be present at Ascot tomorrow for Qipco Champions Day will include the Queen; Her Majesty’s Carlton House, third in last year’s Epsom Derby, runs in the aptly-named Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over a mile. But even the Queen will not begrudge being upstaged by Frankel – if it means the horse of a lifetime being able to retire as the undisputed, and unbeaten, champion of the world.