Canford Cliffs v Frankel at Goodwood

It has variously been described as the race of the century or the duel on the downs - the Sussex Stakes over a mile at 16.10 CET at Goodwood this afternoon. Only four runners, but they include arguably the two best milers in the world - the 4yo Canford Cliffs (Richard Hannon/ Richard Hughes) and Frankel (Sir Henry Cecil/ Tom Queally). Both are right out of the top drawer - Canford Cliffs, who has won 7 of his 10 starts, including the last five, among them this race last year and most recently a defeat of the mighty Goldikova at Royal Ascot. And Frankel, unbeaten in 7 starts and hugely impressive in most of them, especially when winning the 2,000 Guineas in breathtaking style. Frankel´s problem is that he is very headstrong, which means that race tactics will be all important. However it is likely that he will be in the lead two furlongs out, with Richard Hughes riding a stalking race on Canford Cliffs. This worked at Ascot against Goldikova, but it remains to be seen if it wi ll work again. Both tams w r confdent that their runners are in top form, we give slight preference to the younger horse who receives 8 lbs from his older rival- and last weekend´s results suggest that the 3yo´s are favoured by the weight-for-age scale at present.

Of course the other two runners cannot be totally disregarded, especially the French challenger Rajsaman (Freddie Head/ Thierry Jarnet), out to avenge her stable companion´s defeat by Canford Cliffs last time. He was himself only just over length behind Goldikova in May and any improvement puts him in with a chance. He can certainly be preferred to Rio de la Plata (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori), himself a multiple Group One winner but probably destined for a lucrative last place here, especially in view of the poor stable form. It is possble that Frankie may try to make the running, but certainly not flat out and a sprint in the straight seems the likeliest scenario.