Yes, Frankel may get mentioned here a few times.
I"ve got a few antepost picks for the first four classics. I won"t post up reasons at the moment. These were selected over the new year, haven"t had much chance to look back and re-evaluate yet.
2000 Guineas - Dream Ahead
1000 Guineas - Hooray
The Oaks - Havant
The Derby - Frankel
My thoughts on the 2000 Guineas are that potentially this could be a cracker this year
Frankel beat Dream Ahead by 7 lengths in the Dewhurst and Dream Ahead beat Strong Suit by 9 lengths in the Middle Park [
over 6f] so it will be hard to fancy those 2 to reverse form imho.
In the Dewhurst Frankel also had the Champagne Stakes winner Saamidd and 3rd placed Waiter"s Dream well stuffed, plus lets face it Godolphin"s record in the 2000 guineas is bloody awful.. Mr Tester the BHA"s two-year-old specialist had Frankel and Dream Ahead joint rated at the end of the season, WTF comes to mind
... Mr Tester in his wisdom said because Frankel only beat maiden winners [Roderic O"Connor and Glor Na Mara] that it took the gloss off his Dewhurst win? Well he must of missed Roderic O"Connor winning the Criterium International Group 1 over a mile at Saint-cloud in a very good time on heavy ground [french heavy].. Rajsaman later on in the Prix Perth ran only 0.30 secs quicker [and he was a 3 year old]... He is rated 115 over a mile so imho after going through the races this only enhances what Frankel did...
The potential fly in the ointment could be Patchfork [especially if you take into account his win over Glor Na Mara in the Vincent O"Brien National].. Wootton Bassett"s win over Tin Horse at Longchamp puts him ahead of Dream Ahead imo, he has won on good to firm, good and very soft ground in good company, that points to a touch of class...
Pathfork is unbeaten after 3 races, his win over Casamento at the Curragh got boosted when Casamento went onto win the Racing Post Trophy... So for me Frankel is the likely winner but Patchfork and Wootton Bassett represent value at double figure odds, so i have had some each way savers on those two
just to add -
Casamento maybe of interest for the Derby, but i want to see him run again before i make my mind up