I don't believe we should be overreacting either way. To say he won't be top class because he lost on his debut, is ridiculous, many of the greats lost on debut including Sea The Stars recently. Had he been beaten along way, then perhaps alarm bells would be ringing, but he ran a nice race in coming 2nd. Henry Cecil has never been a trainer to have them fully wound up on debut, so I think we can expect big improvements next time. He has proven to me today that he will atleast be good enough to mix it in class 2s, wether he will be a group horse, who knows, but it would be very naive to call it either way at this early stage of his career
I agree Shergar. My point was that i think it is a little premature to be predicting fixture clashes between Frankel and Noble Mission next year. If Noble Mission wasn't Frankel's brother nobody would have heard of him. His debut would have been promising but nobody would be talking about him taking in the top 10f races next year at this stage. I'm not for a minute saying that he can't because i would be at least as delighted as everybody else if he were to prove that good, just that he still needs to prove it.
Good to agree on something Zenyatta. My post wasn't in reaction to yours, just incase you thought it was. I like you would be amazed if Noble Mission and Frankel clashed, first of all he has got to prove he has the required ability to contest races against the top G1 horse's, and even if he does, which is a big if, I can't see KA or HC wanting to put up opposition to Frankel's unbeaten streak. It's different with Midday and Twice Over as they don't realy have much to lose running them against each other, so they may aswell go mob handed, but with Frankel that unbeaten run is everything
Absolutely - the only way they'll race together is if Noble Mission is a flop and ends up pacemaking a la Bullet Train.
I don't think they expected Noble Mission to win yesterday, or he wouldn't have gone off at 6/1. Jason Weaver said he looked a little week and backward, and had a fair bit of growing up to do. A promising run in a fair maiden, and the Godolphin winner may be smart also, as could a few in behind.
AR.....Henry Cecil's stable has never been a gambling stable, so the price is irrelevant. Noble Mission was the favourite all morning, and the drift only happened when the horse was seen in the paddock. Clearly punters didn't like the look of him, and I'd have to agree, he looked very small and weak, in comparison to some of the others in the race
