Racing:Frankel annihilated last year's winner Canford Cliffs with a scintillating display in the Qipco Sussex Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. Henry Cecil's three-year-old was unbeaten in seven previous racecourse starts and facing just three rivals over a mile, Tom Queally was happy to let him set the pace.
Richard Hughes was content to follow on Canford Cliffs, a winner of five consecutive Group One races and the much-anticipated match remained very much alive early in the straight. But it became evident from the two-furlong marker that Frankel was winning the argument and once Queally pushed the button, the response was electrifying.
The 8-13 favourite pulled right away and passed the post with a full five lengths in hand.
Canford Cliffs hung across the track in the final furlong but held on for second from Rio De La Plata.
Canford Cliffs was conceding 8lb to his rival, but few could have expected such an emphatic victory.
Frankel was awesome in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket when setting a ferocious pace, but the critics were lining up after he only just managed to win the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.
He looked right back to his best this time however, travelling well within himself throughout before finding a phenomenal change of gear.
Canford Cliffs looked sure to give him a real race having won the Lockinge and defeated super-mare Goldikova in the Queen Anne at the Royal meeting, but in the end, he was not in the same league as his young opponent.
Canford Cliffs’ trainer Richard Hannon said: “I don’t think Goodwood is his track. He doesn’t like going downhill, so we’ll see. We scoped him and blood tested him and everything is perfect inside.
“I wouldn’t be worried on a decent track to have another go. I thought the race went well. They didn’t go fast early, but when they went round the bend and came into the straight, they went a hell of a good gallop.
“We’ll have to go home and rethink it, but I’m sure it’s the racecourse. That wasn’t his run. I know one horse had to win and one had to lose, but we’ll have to have another go at him. Either Frankel is just unbeatable or we should have been closer.”
Hughes was graceful in defeat, adding: “I don’t want to make any excuses. Frankel is a brilliant horse and he was the best horse on the day.
“My lad didn’t move great and he didn’t really stretch and hung badly. I was off the bridle today five furlongs out. I know Frankel was bowling along going a good gallop, but I’ve never known Canford Cliffs off the bridle in the middle of a race.
“The only time he has hung is when he has got beat and we thought all that was behind him. I don’t want to stand here making excuses as Frankel deserves all the credit.
“If we’d won and they were making excuses I wouldn’t like it, so I don’t want to do the same. It definitely wasn’t a 100 per cent run.”