Frankel

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Frankel, officially rated the best horse in the world, could be even better this season, his trainer Henry Cecil revealed ahead of his proposed comeback at Newbury in May.

The four-year-old has swept all before him in the past two seasons, winning all of his nine starts that include an astonishing win in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket that he secured with remarkable ease.

The Galileo colt’s five victories last season commenced with an easy win in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes, in an extraordinary campaign that saw him bag a successive quintet of Group One races.

Wins in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes followed his Guineas win and he has since officially been ranked the best horse in the world on 136, ahead of Aussie superstar Black Caviar who is rated 132.

“As long as he keeps right, he could be a better horse this year than last year,” Cecil said of Frankel who is likely to return in the JLT Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 19.

“He’s grown and he’s stronger. He’s beginning to settle well and mentally he’s grown up.”

“We’ll start off over a mile and we’ll feel our way.

“Whether he runs at Ascot over a mile or a mile and a quarter, time will tell. Eventually he’ll hopefully be running a mile and a quarter, hopefully by Juddmonte time.

“He may go and a mile and a quarter earlier, but he’ll tell us what to do, I’m not going to tell him.

“Every day is another day and I’m always happy after I see him walking across the road after he’s cantered. Things can happen to horses.”