Royal Ascot looks the most likely next port of call for Frankel following his incredible display in Saturday's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.The Henry Cecil-trained colt maintained his unbeaten record in a fashion that had onlookers rubbing their eyes in disbelief as he made every yard of the running on the Rowley Mile with a scintillating display of raw power.Connections now have some crucial decisions to make, but after all but ruling out the Dante Stakes at York, it appears to be a straight choic

Royal Ascot looks the most likely next port of call for Frankel following his incredible display in Saturday's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket.

The Henry Cecil-trained colt maintained his unbeaten record in a fashion that had onlookers rubbing their eyes in disbelief as he made every yard of the running on the Rowley Mile with a scintillating display of raw power.

Connections now have some crucial decisions to make, but after all but ruling out the Dante Stakes at York, it appears to be a straight choice between the Derby at Epsom or the St James's Palace Stakes at the Royal meeting.

"The final decision will be the Prince's (owner Khalid Abdullah) so we'll discuss it with him and we'll try to work out the best thing for the horse," said Cecil.

"I think eventually, when he gets a bit stronger, there's every chance he'll get a mile and a quarter. Whether he'll get further than that, time will tell.

"The Dante will probably come too close anyway, so I'm not going to test him in the Dante to see if he gets the Derby trip.

"The two options are he'll either go for the St James's Palace or the Derby.

"There's no point guessing and we want to get it right, but people who want to back him for the Derby want to sit, because he's not definitely going to be a Derby runner.

"We haven't decided and nothing has been confirmed yet, but I wouldn't personally back him for the Derby."

Abdullah's racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe echoed Cecil's thoughts and he too sees the colt as more likely to run at Ascot than Epsom.

"It was a spectacular performance - there is no question about that," Grimthorpe said.

"We were always hopeful he would produce a good performance, but to do something like that was exceptional by any standards.

"I would think the next most likely race for him would be the St James's Palace Stakes."

Frankel's front-running tactics took everyone by surprise but Cecil felt there was little point in breaking his colt's powerful stride.

"With the way he was drawn and everything, I just felt that we'd do our own thing," Cecil told At The Races.

"He's got a long stride on him and I didn't want to put him out of it. He was very relaxed in the race and he can really gallop.

"My plan was to basically ignore the field. Newmarket is difficult as it's a very testing straight mile."

Such was the ferocious gallop Frankel set from start to finish, many would have expected him to have been feeling the effects this morning.

But Cecil revealed said he was in fine form and did not have as hard a race as it might have looked.

"He's fine this morning. He licked up last night and was hollering for his breakfast," the trainer said.

"Obviously any race takes a bit out of a horse and I'll have to feel my way back with him carefully and quietly. There's no rush at all.

"His way of running with that long stride looks exhausting, but he's well within himself. He probably didn't have as hard a race as people think."