"There is always a bit of pressure with a horse of his caliber. You are nervous about this, that and the other. I am very happy to have him and he is a challenge. I do the best I can with him. Frankel is a very hot-blooded horse. We have cameras on him and can see what he is up to in our bedroom.... He is always biting himself. He sweats between his back legs in the paddock before a race, and with a lot of horses that is a bad sign, but it is only because he is quite hot-blooded."

"If Frankel can slam one of the 'big guns' over ten furlongs next year, then there's every chance he'll achieve a rating in excess of 145, thereby earning the title of Timeform's greatest ever racehorse."

"Canford Cliffs, the big, dappled colt who ostensibly represented the biggest challenge yet to Frankel's immaculate record, looked relaxed and imposing. But Frankel just took the breath away, brawny but fluid. His physique is increasingly pugilistic ... his overall demeanour was so insouciant that it was easy to accept Cecil's theory that Frankel is outgrowing the reckless exuberance of his younger days."

"The only thing that would worry me is that he didn't come down the hill particularly well last year, but he's a more mature horse now, so I don't think it'll be a problem. It's going to be a hell of a race. If there are any weaknesses in our fellow, I haven't found them. And Frankel is rated the best in the world. But one of them has to get beat."

"It is six and a half weeks since Frankel broke his opponents before halfway in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket with an explosion of speed that was as brutal as it was astonishing. It was the sixth race of his career, and the sixth victory. If he can produce something similar on Tuesday ... it will establish him as being as close to perfection in racing horseflesh as an imperfect world is ever likely to get."

"Frankel produced one of the greatest performances seen on a British racecourse when running away with the 2,000 Guineas here, propelling his much-loved trainer, Henry Cecil, back to the top of his profession long after his career had seemed in its twilight. Incredibly, the manner of this all-the-way victory matched the wildest hopes held for the colt, whose reputation has grown ..."

"Coming through a Classic trial like Saturday’s Greenham Stakes is so much more than winning a race that takes just 84.6 seconds to run. It is about coming through six months of winter, the trials and tribulations of a colt stampeding through its teenage years, maturing into an adult and converting raw potential into the thoroughbred breeder’s Holy Grail, the perfect racehorse."

"Frankel was a best-priced 5-6 for the Guineas before Saturday's victory, but Victor Chandler, who laid a bet of £550,000 on Frankel for the Guineas earlier in the week, now offer just 4-9 about the son of Galileo extending his winning record to six at Newmarket. Bookmakers were unanimous in cutting Frankel for the first Classic of the season, although Boylesports, Stan James and Coral offer a tempting 4-6. Ladbrokes make Frankel a 7-2 chance (from 9-2) for the Investec Derby."

"The Racing Post and RPRs were not around in 1975 when Wollow was around, but compared to the top two-year-olds who have come since then Frankel rates up with the very best. He achieved an RPR of 127+ for his Dewhurst success, which puts him in co-third on the all-time juvenile list alongside Xaar, Seattle Rhyme and Rainbow Corner - behind Arazi (134) and Celtic Swing (133). Since all of those came in the 90s, Frankel rates as the best European juvenile in the 21st century."

"The handsome colt will now carry a banner for all. For the punters who have backed him; for those in the industry who seek a champion with the credentials to make a stallion; for racing fans who love to see a top-class racehorse; for the marketing people who know a 'sexy' story when they see one (a horse named after a genius horseman lost to cancer, handled by another fighting the same disease); and for the public, from the mawkishly sentimental to the quietly genuine, who wish his trainer, Henry Cecil, well."

"Two Group Ones on the same afternoon was a little too much for Warren Place's tradition of hoisting the family standard when the stable have a win at the highest level. 'Jane [his wife] and I have got flu, so we were too weak to sort out the flag when we got home. And we haven't got two flagpoles, nor two flags. So, we'll have to leave it up for two weeks. But we'll have to take it down before Midday goes for the Breeders' Cup. It's unlucky otherwise,' the trainer explained."

"It was impossible not to be impressed with the style of Frankel's win at Ascot on Saturday when landing the Royal Lodge by ten lengths. Whilst it is true that none of his opponents were likely to test a champion, the manner of his run and the huge winning margin has landed him an official rating of 123. This is easily the best Royal Lodge performance of the last 20 years and puts him well ahead of horses like Benny The Dip (113) and Mister Baileys (115), who won the race before success in the Derby and the 2,000 Guineas respectively the next year. Eltish at 118 is the next highest winner for this race and he went on to finish second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in 1994."

"Despite the present, witless tendency to treat them as characters in search of an author, men such as Frankie Dettori and Henry Cecil could never be adequately prefigured by a script. Marketing men always promise some kind of Holy Grail – for due consideration, of course – but overlook the paradox of every messianic tradition. A saviour is constantly sought, constantly imagined, but seldom arrives in the manner expected. And that will never be as true as when you depend on the random agency of horses."