Frankel turns on style to win Royal Ascot opener

 
19 June 2012

Frankel turned in another spellbinding performance to maintain his unbeaten record in the Queen Anne Stakes, the opening contest of Royal Ascot.

Sir Henry Cecil's colt put an early-season setback behind him to make a brilliant return to action in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury last month and he was an incredible 1-10 favourite to register his 11th victory from as many starts.

The world's highest-rated racehorse predictably tracked his pacemaker and three-parts brother Bullet Train before taking over the lead three furlongs from home.

Excelebration did his best to stick with his old rival, but Frankel was once again in a class of his own as he stretched clear under Tom Queally to score by 11 lengths.

The Aidan O'Brien-trained Excelebration filled the runner-up spot, his fifth defeat at the hands of Frankel.

Side Glance finished third.

The result was scarcely in doubt from the halfway stage, as Frankel moved ominously to the lead still full of running.

Just for a moment it appeared as though Excelebration could shake up the market leader, but Frankel showed a quite devastating turn of foot to leave him and the rest of the field standing.

Excelebration almost paid the price for trying to take on Frankel as he tired in the final furlong, but he held off Side Glance by a neck to claim the runner-up spot.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in