Frankel storms the Palace

Frankel retained his unbeaten record - seven wins from seven starts - after landing the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot this afternoon. Earlier Canford Cliffs confined Goldikova to second place in the Group One Queen Anne Stakes opener.

Frankel failed to reproduce the remarkable performance that saw him runaway with the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket and only had three quarters of a length in hand at the line.

Tom Queally sent his colt in pursuit of pacemaker Rerouted fully four furlongs from home and it looked as though the son of Galileo was set for another wide margin success.

However, he began to tire in the final furlong and a half and had to dig deep to repel the challengers.

Zoffany was his nearest pursuer at the line with German Guineas winner Excelebration in third with Neebras in fourth.

Winning trainer Sir Henry Cecil later said: "He settled really well. Obviously the pacemaker went off very fast and he had to ask him to take it up.

"Tom said when he was in front a furlong out he thought he'd done enough. He said he was getting really idle which is good in a way as it means we can ride a normal race on him.

"The plan was to kick on rounding the bend as he had done in the Royal Lodge (here) last year, but now he's getting wiser and he thought he'd done enough, rather like in the Guineas."

Cecil added: "He wasn't at all tired, he just thought he'd done enough. That's good really, it means we can settle him in behind now.

"I think it's inevitable we'll meet Canford Cliffs and Goldikova somewhere, unless this horse goes over a mile and a quarter which would be the Juddmonte International. Maybe the Sussex or the Juddmonte, we'll see."

Queally said: "He jumped a little bit slow but he settled better than he's ever settled.

"Nobody wanted to chase the pace so as a result I went sooner rather than later. He was running for a long way and was just getting a bit fed up in front. He does it so easy.

"He wasn't getting tired. He's growing up all the time. Everyone seems to think he can just jump and run but he's more versatile than that. We've got options with regards to tactics and he's the one to beat at the moment."