’I’ve got him where I want him’ - Cecil
“At this stage I wouldn’t swap him, but there’s no such thing as a racing certainly and Saturday will tell us a lot more,” said Cecil, who last won the race with Wollow in 1976.
“There is a certain amount of pressure and you always worry a bit about things going wrong.
“But you just have to accept things and get on with it and unless you have butterflies, I don’t think it’s worth doing it.”
Frankel rounded off a brilliant two-year-old career in the Dewhurst Stakes, and Cecil expects progress from the Greenham.
“At Newbury he was ready for a race, but wasn’t tuned up,” he added.
“People criticised the way he won – they said he got upset, which he didn’t - he behaved very well for a fresh horse first time out.
“I have trained him for the Guineas and I like to think he’ll be a much better horse on Saturday than when he came out just to have an introduction.
“On pedigree, he could be a better three-year-old than two-year-old and he looks a better horse this year.
“I’d like to think I’ve got him where I want him to be.”
Frankel is owned by Khalid Abdullah, who also has a pacemaker in Rerouted.
His racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said: “We’ve got Rerouted in to make a sensible pace, really, and I think that’s all we want, he’s not going to blast away and go ridiculous.”
Godolphin are double-handed courtesy of Casamento and Saamidd.
Casamento, formerly with Michael Halford, finished a head behind Pathfork in the National Stakes but went on to win the Beresford and Racing Post Trophy.
Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford said: “Casamento has enough pace for a mile, plenty of speed, and is doing very well at the moment.
“Mahmood Al Zarooni’s stable is in cracking form and he goes there in good order.
“Nothing came to light with Saamidd after the Dewhurst. His attitude seemed to change and he didn’t really like the ground, but even going down to the start he was different and he didn’t run any type of race.
“He is a good horse and is working nicely.”.”
Ed Dunlop is realistic about how Native Khan will fare, but believes things are falling nicely into place for the Craven winner.
“Native Khan is rated 111, as against the 126 of Frankel, so if the favourite is on his game we need to produce a career best performance to get anywhere near him,” he told www.edunlop.com.
“However, Native Khan has improved since he won the Craven and he seems more laid-back in his work.
“There is precious little rain around and they are talking of temperatures around 19 degrees for the big race, so it looks like we will get our fast ground and there also seems to be plenty of pace in the race.
“We won’t be making excuses if we are not good enough.”
Dubawi Gold, with Michael Dods at two, is now with Richard Hannon, who reported on his stable’s website: “Dubawi Gold has done nothing wrong since he joined us and has won both his races in contrasting style.
“While we aren’t going there expecting to beat Frankel, he is an improving colt who deserves to take his chance, and it would not be a complete shock if he finished in the first four.”
