| Rory McIlroy admits regret over calling Ryder Cup 'an exhibition' event • 21-year-old preparing for Ryder Cup debut next week• Last year said the event was 'not that important to me'Rory McIlroy has admitted he regrets calling the Ryder Cup "an exhibition" last year, and says he is feeling nervous ahead of his debut at Celtic Manor next week.In May last year McIlroy said: "The Ryder Cup is a great spectacle but an exhibition at the end of the day and it should be there to be enjoyed. In the big scheme of things it's not that important to me."However, although he still puts success in majors and even the world championship higher on his list of career goals, McIlroy insists he has real respect for the competition."Next week is going to be fantastic. It's definitely not an exhibition, it's a great spectacle. I said exhibition last year when I was not focused on a team event."McIlroy, winner of four points out of five for Britain and Ireland against Continental Europe in the Vivendi Trophy last September, added: "I sort of forgot how good it was. We won and it was great to share the win with 11 other guys."The 21-year-old admitted to nerves before he makes his debut, when he is being tipped to lead things off for Europe alongside his compatriot and close friend Graeme McDowell."Obviously it's my first experience [of a Ryder Cup] and one I'm going to try to enjoy. Hopefully the adrenaline will make me play well. I'm going to be very nervous over my first tee shot, but once you get that out of the way all you are thinking about is winning your match."Three of his victories at the Vivendi Trophy came with McDowell as his partner and all of them were achieved going out first. Asked about the likelihood of them being put together again he said: "I'm not sure. I will have a better sense when we get there [on Monday]."It worked well last year and I'd like to, but whatever Monty thinks I don't mind. I'm very close to 'GMac' and I think we would both love to partner each other. Hopefully we'll get a couple of games and try to make the most of it."McIlroy is one of six uncapped players, the most Europe have had since 1999, but he points out: "There's a lot of experience with Lee Westwood, Miguel Angel JimĂ©nez, Ian Poulter and GMac's played one."Then you have the vice-captains [Sergio GarcĂa, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn] and obviously Monty. It's great to have people like that in and around the team."They will have a big role to play. I don't know how I am going to be in the team room, but I will definitely be listening to those guys. It's not like it's my first experience of a big event. I think we will be fine."McDowell, meanwhile, said McIlroy's view of the event would change with experience. "Rory is an extremely ambitious kid and he's all about major championships and WGCs. But I think he'll have a different respect for the Ryder Cup next weekend when he gets out there and feels it and understands it. Of course it's different from a major and a WGC – it's not an individual win – it's just something a bit special."Rory McIlroyRyder CupGolfguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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Henry Cecil achieves Group One double with Frankel and Twice Over • Frankel excites Cecil as trainer triumphs on Champions Day • Cecil compares flying Frankel with the brilliant AraziAfter Frankel's 10-length in the Royal Lodge Stakes last month, Henry Cecil reached back into his own past and suggested he had not had a better two-year-old since the mid-70s. After the same colt had completed an unbeaten juvenile season in the Group One Dewhurst Stakes, he broadened his horizons, and mentioned him in the same breath as Arazi.Cecil was referring to Frankel's work on the gallops rather than his performance on the track today when he summoned the memory of the horse that famously ran past the entire field in the 1991 Breeders' Cup Juvenile. But the point was well made even so, as Frankel will now head into the winter as the most exciting three-year-old prospect for many years.There was an impressive crowd on Newmarket Heath for the last running of Champions Day at Flat racing's spiritual home, and while some were there to say farewell to the Champion Stakes, most were focused squarely on the Dewhurst, billed as the best two-year-old event in living memory. Frankel was the 4-6 favourite even though he was making his debut at Group One level, while Dream Ahead, the nine-length Middle Park Stakes winner, started at 5-2. Saamidd, who would have been favourite for many runnings of the race after taking the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, set off at 7-1.In the event, neither Dream Ahead nor Saamidd reproduced their best form, and the crowd were denied the thrill of a three-cornered fight in the final furlong. A comprehensive victory for a Henry Cecil-trained favourite was the next best thing, however, and though Frankel pulled hard in the early stages after taking a bump leaving the stalls, Tom Queally had everything under control at halfway and his powerful gallop quickly carried him past the front-running Roderic O'Connor inside the final quarter-mile. Frankel did not power 10 lengths clear as at Ascot, but nothing was ever going to reel him in.Frankel baulked slightly at the cheer as he was led back into the winner's enclosure, but he will need to get used to it. The noise will be even louder if he can give Henry Cecil his first win in the 2,000 Guineas for 35 years next spring, and the son of Galileo is now no bigger than 5-4 to start his three-year-old season with a Classic success."He's been very relaxed at home, but he got a bump coming out of the stalls which set him alight a bit and they weren't really going fast enough for him," Cecil said. "But he did it well, and Tom never had to hit him or anything. If he hadn't got that bump, I think he might have been more impressive."At home, he does work unbelievably well. I've never had one work like him, he goes into a sixth gear. I think if he was a Formula One car, he'd win everything so long as I didn't drive him. When you pick him up he just lengthens and he's gone. The last horse I remember seeing [anything like him] was Arazi, who was similar in many ways."I hope he has a good winter and everything goes right, and he should make a lovely three-year-old. I'm hopeful he'll make a Guineas horse and the St James's Palace [at Ascot], and whether he'll get further later on in his life, we'll see."Queally, composed and nerveless as always, said: "I didn't have to resort to the stick and if you don't punish young horses like this at this stage of their career then it is a bonus. Judging by how he ran in the first three or four furlongs, it looks like he won't be a Derby horse, but who knows how he will mature."Mention of Ascot next summer, rather than the Derby a couple of weeks earlier, makes William Hill's offer of 11-4 for a Guineas-Derby double look painfully short. It was noticeable in the paddock how much scope he has to fill out and improve, though, and as a son of Galileo, punters should not rule him out of the Derby reckoning entirely.There is little that Cecil has not achieved in his 40-year career, but until he had never won two Group One races on the same day. Less than an hour after the Dewhurst, though, he was at the centre of the acclaim again as Twice Over was led back after winning the Emirates Airlines Champion Stakes for the second year running.Queally, who can now be counted among the elite big-race jockeys, produced another smooth performance, opening up a lead inside the final two that Vision D'Etat, the favourite, was never going to bridge. Twice Over will now be aimed at the Dubai World Cup at Meydan in March, in which he was unplaced from a poor draw this year."A few years ago, I'd have been at Catterick today," Cecil said, referring to a slump in form in the middle part of the decade. "I'm delighted to win this for the Prince [Khalid Abdullah]. If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be here now. I'll go on for as long as he'll have me."Delegator was a disappointing favourite for Godolphin in the opening race on the card, the Victor Chandler Challenge Stakes, as Red Jazz came home ahead of Cat Junior, while Aaim To Prosper took the Cesarewitch Handicap for Brian Meehan.Cape Dollar stayed on better than the favourite, I Love Me, in the Group Two Rockfel Stakes, a race that has produced several useful clues to the 1,000 Guineas in recent years. This did not look like an outstanding renewal, though, and she is a 20-1 chance with Ladbrokes for next year's fillies' Classic. Tattenham Corner online guardian.co.uk/sportHorse racingFrankelTom QueallyHenry CecilGreg Woodguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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