Queally must get tactics right in a two-horse race

In the dim and distant past when the sport of horseracing was primarily for the amusement of aristocrats, match races were invariably the order of the day. Two horses would line up with substantial sidebets between their owners and tactics were all important.

Tomorrow's head-to-head confrontation at Goodwood between the freakishly unbeaten colt Frankel and the imposing four-year-old Canford Cliffs is something of a throwback to those match races of old.

Two others, Rio de la Plata and Rajsaman, are also running but it will be a huge shock, not to say disappointment, if one of them gatecrashes the duel that has been the talk of racing these past few weeks.

Showdowns on the flat don't come any better than this. What we will see in the Sussex Stakes is a collision of racing styles with the powerfully built Frankel, an impatient, free-running bruiser, with a ground devouring stride likely to be stalked with intent by the sleekly gifted miler Canford Cliffs whose jockey Richard Hughes has perfected the art of delivering withering late challenges.

Hughes has made it clear that he would prefer to rely on his usual stealthy tactics at Goodwood.

"There's nothing worse for a jockey than taking it on too soon, looking like winning the race, then giving it away. For me that is a sin. I'd rather not win and get there too late," he said.

Frankel shot out of the gate in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket as if he had been stung and pounded his rivals into submission long before half-way. At one stage, incredibly, he was 15 lengths clear before coming home on his own.