A champion

What a summer this has been for athletic and sporting achievement in Britain.
The prodigous performances in the London Olympics are a matter of record and yesterday the British trained racehorse Frankel confirmed that he is the best horse in the world at the moment and may be the best of the last fifty or more years. His win by a comfortable seven lengths in the Juddmonte International Stakes was watched at York racecourse by a huge crowd which was there not to place bets - Frankel was a prohibitive ten to one on - but to see this magnificent horse in action.

Since his first appearance at Newmarket almost exactly two years ago Frankel has now won thirteen races in succession, most of them by big margins.
The only question yesterday was whether his first race at two furlongs longer than the others of one mile would discover any weakness in him. To the contrary, Frankel with his regular jockey, Tom Queally, easily moved into his familiar devastating stride that took them from almost the back of the pack to the front in the final straight.

The reception from the grandstands and the crowds on the rails was ecstatic. Frankel's trainer, Sir Henry Cecil, who is fighting cancer, took the risk of attending the race and told the TV reporter that the win had made him “feel 20 years better”.