Frankel confirmed for Sussex Stakes - but Sir Henry Cecil won't be there

The Sir Henry Cecil-trained four-year-old sauntered to a facile five-length victory over Canford Cliffs in last year’s renewal of the prestigious mile contest and will be aiming to stretch his unbeaten run to 12 races in the 2012 renewal.

If he is successful on Wednesday, Frankel would also create history by becoming the first horse to win the QIPCO Sussex Stakes twice.

wned by Khalid Abdulla and partnered by Tom Queally on all his 11 starts to date, Frankel was last seen at Royal Ascot on June 19 when he recorded his most impressive victory to date in the Group One Queen Anne Stakes with a breathtaking 11-length success over Excelebration. That performance earned him an official rating of 140 with the British Horseracing Authority.

Sir Henry Cecil said on his website, www.sirhenrycecil.com, today: “Unfortunately, I won’t be at Goodwood on Wednesday as I have been undergoing some treatment. Although I am able to train my horses I’m not quite fit to go racing yet, but I hope to be fully recovered in the near future.

“Everything has gone as we could have wished with Frankel since the Queen Anne Stakes. We gave him an easy time immediately after Royal Ascot before bringing him back into fast work.

“He has pleased us with his work and is going to the Sussex Stakes in good shape. We are taking one race at a time with him and are hoping that he can extend his unbeaten record.”

Frankel is generally trading at odds of 1/20 with bookmakers for the QIPCO Sussex Stakes on Wednesday and is set to face three opponents. His main rival would appear to be Godolphin’s Farhh, who was supplemented for the race at a cost of £19,500. Trained by Saeed bin Suroor, the lightly-raced four-year-old has run two excellent races in Group One company on his latest starts, going down by half a length to Nathaniel in the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown Park on July 7 and finishing third to So You Think in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 20, when he stayed on well after losing ground at the start.

Interestingly, Farhh was due to have met Frankel in a juvenile conditions race at Doncaster in September, 2010, but had to be withdrawn at the start when injuring himself in the stalls.

Completing the line-up in the QIPCO Sussex Stakes are the Richard Fahey-trained Gabrial, who was last seen out when fifth in the Group One St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 19 and Frankel’s half-brother/stablemate Bullet Train, who usually plays the pacemaking role for his illustrious sibling.

The QIPCO Sussex Stakes is the fifth race in the Mile category of the QIPCO British Champions Series.