Noble Mission (pink cap) gets there for a dramatic win
Noble Mission emulated his illustrious full brother Frankel when landing an emotional victory in the Qipco Gr1 Champion Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
The five-year-old, trained by Lady Cecil, has lived in the shadow of Frankel all of his career but enjoyed his finest hour as he made all of the running in this Group One showpiece.
Noble Mission (7-1) pulled out all the stops for James Doyle to hold off Al Kazeem (16-1) by a neck after a terrific tussle.
Free Eagle (5-2) stayed on strongly for third place, a length and a quarter behind.
Frankel ended his racing days with victory in this race two years ago, when trained by the late Henry Cecil.
Doyle said: “This fellow is really unbelievable.
“He was very tough. I thought Al Kazeem had the better of us at one point but, luckily, we saved enough inside the final half a furlong.
“He’s very versatile and the family has improved with age.
“It’s a great team effort.”
Noble Mission had enjoyed a terrific season as a five-year-old, during which time he has now won three Group One races, with a switch to front-running tactics having worked the oracle.
Quirky in his younger days, Noble Mission is very much a reformed character and showed he was extremely genuine when responding to Doyle’s urgings as failed stallion Al Kazeem loomed large in the straight.
Both horses gave everything, but it was Noble Mission who stuck his head out to record a fairytale triumph.
Cirrus Des Aigles, winner of this race in 2011 and runner-up in the 2012-13, could not repeat those efforts after threatening briefly in the straight.
Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager for Noble Mission’s owner, Khalid Abdullah, simply said: “It’s a fairytale, it really is.”
Lady Cecil said: “James gave him a great ride as he (Noble Mission) really had to dig deep.
“He’s just enjoying it so much these days – he loves his racing.
“It’s a great team effort, I’m so lucky.”
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