Frankel likely to end his career on QIPCO British Champions Day

Frankel, with Tom Queally in the saddle, wins the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in April 2011. Image courtesy of racingfotos.com.

The magnificent Frankel, unbeaten in nine races and ranked as the best horse in the world on an official rating of 136, lit up the inaugural QIPCO British Champions Day at Ascot in 2010. 

The early indications are that he may well do so again on 20 October this year, with the possibility of him going to the USA for the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita just two weeks later appearing to have diminished.

Last year it was the one mile £1m Queen Elizabeth II Stakes sponsored by QIPCO that he won in spectacular style, the fifth Group 1 victory of his burgeoning career.

This year it is likely to be Britain’s richest race, the £1.3m QIPCO Champion Stakes over 1m 2f that the son of Galileo will target on what would almost certainly be his final racecourse appearance.

Lord Grimthorpe, racing manager to Frankel’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdulla, told the Racing Post that the aim is to step the colt up to 1m 2f during the season and that there was no obvious race for him over that distance at the Breeders’ Cup.

This would appear to rule out a tilt at the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which is run over that trip but on dirt rather than turf, a surface that the Sir Henry Cecil-trained star would never have encountered before.

Grimthorpe said that QIPCO British Champions Day was at this stage likely to be the scene of Frankel’s swansong, with a career as a stallion beckoning for him at the end of the season.

Tickets for QIPCO British Champions Day are on sale now, with the Premier admission, which sold out well in advance last year, costing £47 and Grandstand admission costing £26. To book via Ascot now, CLICK HERE.