Press Release: FRANKEL HITS AN OFFICIAL MARK OF 140 Following his breathtaking, 11 length Queen Anne Stakes victory at Royal Ascot on Tuesday, Frankel's official rating has risen by two pounds to 140. It makes him officially the best since another Prince Khalid Abdulla-owned horse, Dancing Brave, in 1986 who ended his career with a rating of 141. Apart from his own 138 in the JLT Lockinge Stakes at Newbury last month, Frankel's 140 puts him a massive 16 pounds clear of the next best performances in the 2012 QIPCO British Champions Series - the Epsom victories of Camelot in the Investec Derby and St Nicholas Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee Coronation Cup (sponsored by Investec) and So You Think's Prince of Wales's Stakes triumph at Royal Ascot yesterday. All three Aidan O'Brien-trained horses earned a British Horseracing Authority (BHA) performance rating of 124 to share top ranking in the Middle Distance division. Excelebration's 125 when beaten five lengths in the JLT Lockinge Stakes keeps him in second place to Frankel in both the Mile division and the overall Series rankings, though he ran well below his best when finishing more than twice as far behind Frankel on Tuesday, for which he was rated just 115. The Queen Anne third, Side Glance, was rated 114. Most Improved was awarded a rating of 116 following his St James's Palace Stakes triumph. In the light of that race, the ratings for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas have been dropped by two pounds with Hermival, third at Newmarket and second at Ascot, receiving the same 114 rating for both performances. Gregorian, who was a head back in third in the St James's Palace, was also rated 114. Camelot's Guineas win drops to 119 and runner-up French Fifteen goes down to 118, but still well above Most Improved. Hong Kong raider, Little Bridge now tops the Sprint division on a rating of 120 following his fine King's Stand Stakes victory at Royal Ascot on Tuesday. The King's Stand runner-up, Bated Breath, took a step forward for the season to 118 after recording 116 in the first sprint of the Series, the betfred.com Temple Stakes at Haydock Park. Sole Power ran second to Bated Breath that day and was third in the King's Stand, with both performances rated 115. So You Think's 124 in yesterday's Prince of Wales's Stakes was a pound below his current official mark of 125. The runner-up Carlton House, posted 119 - the same mark as he ended last season - while the unlucky third, Farhh, posted a career best 118 and must have the potential to go higher as the season progresses. Dominic Gardiner-Hill, the BHA's mile handicapper, said: "Frankel's win in the Queen Anne was one of the most visually stunning I have seen in my time as a handicapper and I'm sure was a superior performance to his win in the Lockinge and therefore his rating will rise to 140. "In the modern era, Dancing Brave is the highest rated horse we have had on 141 and I wouldn't want to put Frankel above him on what he achieved on Tuesday. "If you look at the quality of the field that Dancing Brave beat in the 1986 Arc, it was chock-full of Group One winners and although Frankel finished a long way clear, beating Side Glance, Indomito and Windsor Palace (Group Two and Three horses at best) does not entitle him to be considered the superior horse at this stage in my opinion." Rod Street, Chief Executive of the British Champions Series, said: "Frankel has led the way in the QIPCO British Champions Series at every stage, ever since the very first race last year when he blitzed his rivals in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas. "It looks like he has three Series races left in his career to try to achieve the highest official rating ever, the Coral-Eclipse or the QIPCO Sussex Stakes, followed by the Juddmonte International and then either the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes or the QIPCO Champion Stakes on QIPCO British Champions Day. "We have to enjoy him while we can as we will surely never see another like him, but now our attention turns to the world's second best horse, Aussie superstar Black Caviar. "Can she put up as visually stunning a performance as Frankel in Saturday's Diamond Jubilee? A sensational end to the week may await!" QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS SERIES OVERALL TOP PERFORMERS (after 12 races) HORSE RACE PERFORMANCE RATING 1 Frankel (MILE) Queen Anne Stakes 140 2 Excelebration (MILE) JLT Lockinge 125 3= Camelot (MD) Investec Derby 124 3= So You Think (MD) Prince of Wales's Stakes 124 3= St Nicholas Abbey (MD) Investec Coronation Cup 124 6= Homecoming Queen (F&M) QIPCO 1000 Guineas 120 6= Little Bridge (SPRINT) King's Stand Stakes 120 8= Camelot (MILE) QIPCO 2000 Guineas 119 8= Carlton House (MD) Prince of Wales's 119 QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS SERIES MILE PERFORMANCE TABLE (after 4 races) HORSE RACE PERFORMANCE RATING 1 Frankel Queen Anne Stakes 140 2 Excelebration JLT Lockinge 125 3 Camelot QIPCO 2000 Guineas 119 4 French Fifteen QIPCO 2000 Guineas 118 5 Dubawi Gold JLT Lockinge 117 6 Most Improved St James's Palace Stakes 116 7= Hermival QIPCO 2000 Guineas 114 7= Gregorian St James's Palace Stakes 114 QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS SERIES MIDDLE DISTANCE PERFORMANCE TABLE (after 3 races) HORSE RACE PERFORMANCE RATING 1= Camelot Investec Derby 124 1= So You Think Prince of Wales's Stakes 124 1= St Nicholas Abbey Investec Coronation Cup 124 4 Carlton House Prince of Wales's Stakes 119 5 Farhh Prince of Wales's Stakes 118 6 Red Cadeaux Investec Coronation Cup 116 7= Main Sequence Investec Derby 115 7= Astrology Investec Derby 115 9 Masked Marvel Investec Coronation Cup 111 QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS SERIES SPRINT PERFORMANCE TABLE (after 2 races) HORSE RACE PERFORMANCE RATING 1 Little Bridge King's Stand Stakes 120 2 Bated Breath King's Stand Stakes 118 3 Sole Power King's Stand & Temple 115 4 Spirit Quartz betfred.com Temple Stakes 105 QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS SERIES LONG DISTANCE PERFORMANCE TABLE (after 1 race) HORSE RACE PERFORMANCE RATING 1 Red Cadeaux Sportingbet Yorkshire Cup 116 2 Glen's Diamond Sportingbet Yorkshire Cup 113 3 Harris Tweed Sportingbet Yorkshire Cup 111 QIPCO BRITISH CHAMPIONS SERIES FILLIES & MARES PERFORMANCE TABLE (after 2 races) HORSE RACE PERFORMANCE RATING 1 Homecoming Queen QIPCO 1000 Guineas 120 2 Was Investec Oaks 113 3 Shirocco Star Investec Oaks 112 4 The Fugue Investec Oaks 111 5 Starscope QIPCO 1000 Guineas 104 6 Maybe QIPCO 1000 Guineas 102 NOTE: To qualify for entry into the Performance Tables, which use BHA performance ratings , a horse must finish in the first three in a QIPCO British Champions Series race. Performance ratings may retrospectively be changed if the handicappers revise their ratings for a race in the light of subsequent results.
Cheers Princess. But I think in order to compare ratings of different ages the wfa should be added in. So at present (latter half of June) we would have to add 11, 12 or 14lbs to Camelot over 8f, 10, and 12f respectively. So over the only distance at which these 2 could possibly meet it would be Frankel 140, Camelot 136.
I do not even look at the BHA ratings now - Dominic Gardener-Hill;s statement justifies my decision to do so - Frankel could have won by 30 lenghts knocking 2 seconds off of the course record and they'd still have him below DB
Ron - I like the fact you have played Devl's advocate by saying "Frankel has only beaten Excelebration this season" - fair play. But to remain objective you'd have to say Camelot, who has beaten absolutely **** all this season, will never get within 4lbs of Frankel at WFA. Not having a go at you personally, but on the one side we have people saying Frankel has to run over further to prove his versatility etc etc etc and yet many people claim Camelot is the 2nd coming because he won a weak Guineas and then an even weaker Derby and now this romantic triple crown nonsense I hope they do meet somewhere along the line because Frankel will wipe the floor with him, they are worlds apart. But tbh even if Frankel wins the Eclipse, Juddmonte and Champion Stakes he will still be crabbed in some quarters because he never ran at 12 furlongs <shakesheadindisbelief> Once again not having a go at you Ron, just fed up with this inane (British?) desire to criticise champions rather than embrace them.
PS I wonder if there's a horse racing forum in Australia where someone is saying "Yes, Black Caviar is a very good mare but she needs to step up to a mile to be considered truly great"
After Tuesday Oddy, I would agree. He is a much stronger and settled horse this year and thank goodness they kept him in training. The thing is Oddy, he was never going to be regarded by everyone as the greatest purely by beating the same horses over again. What he did on Tuesday was to put in a performance that was worthy of a great horse. It was exceptional and I really envy anyone who was there to witness it. Some of the greatest horses of all time never raced beyond a mile so he doesn't have to win over further to prove how great he is. (Usain Bolt wouldn't fair too well over 800 metres). However, he looks as if he would be equally great (or even greater) over 10f so to take on the best of all ages at that distance is something to look forward to. Of course, what we want to see is for Frankel to do to those what he did on Tuesday. Personally I think he'll find that a bit tougher but if he beats them in a fast time - BINGO. I feel hard done by that I won't see him over here but that's irrelevant.
Coolmoore cannot believe their luck regarding Camalot as we all know that Aiden loves to claim every year ' this horse is special ' and most people take it with a pinch of salt, yet with Camalot everyone is doing it for them. There is no proof whatsoever to suggest Camalot is anything special at present. He has potential very clearly but only the same that most other Derby winners have at this stage, whilst many racing people believe he won the guineas due to being a Derby horse, as he outstayed true but fairly poor milers in attrocious ground. If Coolmore would like to attempt to beat Frankel their best bet would be St Nicholas Abbey over a suicidal 10furlong pace set by Excelebration and Astrology, but i still don't think it would work.
Personally, I don't think there is a horse going around at the moment who's capable of beating Frankel over 10 furlongs, no matter how the race is run. With that extremely high cruising speed and electric change of gears, he just seems to be bullet proof.
If your being objective with Camelots form, you would have to say he has still got alot to prove once he takes on the older horses. The Guineas form hardly looks inspiring whilst the Derby form was dragged through the mud yesterday.* Frankel has proven already throughout his career that he can beat top class horses very easily, and I'd expect him beat Camelot very easily.* You could name any horse you like in recent memory, and I feel Frankel would still win easily. He is the best racehorse I have ever seen, and it takes alot for me to say that, considering the amount of admiration I've had for other horses over the years.* His full brother Noble Mission proved yesterday that he stays 12 furlongs, so 10 furlongs should be easily within Frankel's reach.* Some may say it would be good for racing if the pair meet, but I disagree. It will hardly give the triple crown any sort of credibility if the first winner in 42 years is beaten out of sight, which I have no doubt he will be. Coolmore however are not stupid, and would never run Camelot against him. He is the horse that will fill Montjue's position at there stud, they will not risk his reputation
