Timeform say Frankel will find it difficult to better Brigadier Gerard

Frankel first; the rest, nowhere. The 2011 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket , the most remarkable race in a vintage year, sets the tone for the new Flat turf campaign which opens at Doncaster on Saturday. This year the major meetings, the key races and the personalities, issues and stories on and off the track will all be overshadowed by the colt who has pride of place at Henry Cecil's stable in Newmarket, the home of British racing. Last year, Frankel achieved a dominance that earned him the right to be talked of as one of the all-time greats – the question which will guarantee racing the headlines on news as well as sports bulletins in 2012 will be whether Frankel can establish himself as the greatest thoroughbred to have graced the turf. Frankel is currently rated fourth, on 143, in the all-time rankings by renowned horserace ratings experts Timeform, just 2lb below Sea-Bird and 1lb short of previously outstanding 2,000 Guineas winners Brigadier Gerard and Tudor Minstrel. Their newly published Racehorses of 2011 annual makes clear that the task facing Cecil's colt is to better Brigadier Gerard's stellar third-season campaign in 1972. Frankel is scheduled to start 2012 in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury next month with the Eclipse at Sandown in July, or possibly Royal Ascot a month earlier, marking his first venture at a mile and a quarter. The Juddmonte International at York in August over the same trip is a likely port of call, with the Champion Stakes at Ascot in October set to get preference over a Breeders' Cup trip to the States. In the Racehorses essay on Frankel, Timeform point out: "Brigadier Gerard's rating went up from 141 to 144 after his career changed a gear at four when he put up top-class performances at a mile, a mile and a quarter and a mile and a half. In addition to the Lockinge and Eclipse . . . he won the Prince of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot by five lengths [from a subsequent Irish Derby winner], the King George and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes [at Ascot, by six lengths] and the Champion Stakes . Frankel will probably have to do something even more spectacular to establish himself as the best there has ever been." Champions Day at Ascot in October will presumably be dominated by horses and not the whip controversy, as it was last autumn when the reports of Frankel's latest victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes rightly took second place to the furore over Christophe Soumillon's fine and whip ban for his winning ride on Cirrus Des Aigles in the Champion Stakes. "The subject [of the whip] has seldom been out of the pages in the last 30 years and must have become somewhat tiresome," Timeform state in their essay on Rewilding. "The problem is not that the turf authorities never seem to learn from their mistakes, but rather that they keep making the same ones." The changes instituted prior to the Cheltenham Festival by new British Horseracing Authority chief executive, Paul Bittar, means stories of the misuse of the whip are unlikely to become headlines on the general sports pages again but whether that is the case in the racing section remains to be seen. In their discussion on the whip, Timeform add: "How [the new whip rules work] in practice remains to be seen over time. The threshold for a review or inquiry is lower than it was under the rules in force before October, which may result in more reviews and inquiries and, as a result, almost certainly produce more cases in which the stewards have the potential to make decisions that cause controversy." The irony is that the issue of the whip need not have come to dominate horse racing to the extent that it did on the Flat in 2011 and subsequently this jumps season. "Research for the [BHA's] 72-page report showed that 99.25% of all runners from January 2004 to April 2011 completed without any whip offence taking place. In short, the whip was not anything like the problem suggested by the widespread publicity which usually accompanies whip suspensions given to leading jockeys after big races, such as Frankie Dettori's on Rewilding and Jason Maguire's when he won the Grand National on Ballabriggs, the ride that triggered the latest review," highlight Timeform. Rewilding met his end in distressing circumstances last July in the King George, a race which has been in decline for a number of years and one which Timeform believe needs a major boost if it is not to slip further in the world racing league table. "Ascot has been successful in attracting overseas challengers for its big races but its stated aim of re-establishing the King George [first prize in 2011: £611,124] as one of the major events on the global scene is unlikely to be achieved if the race's value cannot be brought more into line with some of its obvious competitors (the Breeders' Cup Turf and Australia's top weight-for-age event, the Cox Plate, for example, had first prizes of over £1m in the latest season)." There are plenty of other subjects chewed over in the 1,200 pages covering the A to Z of the 11,400 runners that competed on Britain and Ireland's tracks last season, including the prospects of the red-hot Guineas and Derby ante-post favourite Camelot. His trainer, Aidan O'Brien, was characteristically reticent on Sunday after the colt had a gallop at the Curragh following racing. Timeform's verdict is that "he looks the best Classic prospect among the colts at this stage" but they are also clear that he is a better bet for the Derby than the Guineas. Camelot is 5-2 best-priced for both but Timeform conclude: "[His sire] Montjeu is such an influence for stamina that it would be hard to make a case for Camelot in a good 2,000 Guineas, but it is just possible that the 2012 edition may not be up to standard. If Camelot takes his chance at Newmarket, he may just get away with it, though he is nearly certain to be a better horse at a mile and a half than a mile." Timeform's Racehorses of 2011 is published by Portway Press at £79.