IT’S been a tough start for Town and Simon Grayson in the Championship – but then it was never going to be a walk in the park.

I suspect many Town fans came away from the Forest game scratching their heads about how many good teams there are at Championship level.

Town didn’t deserve to lose at Cardiff, where they played really well, and then got a creditable draw against Forest thanks to a never-say-die attitude.

The simple facts are that you get fewer chances to score than in the lower divisions, so you’ve got to stick some away.

And you get punished more harshly if you just lose concentration even for a second.

I am sure Town will be fine once they settle into it and start winning a few games.

FOOTBALL is back and that’s great, but Frankel was a fabulous distraction!

There are not many times in your life when you attend a sporting event and look back afterwards thinking: “I was privileged to be there.”

That’s what it was like at York racecourse on Wednesday, though, when Frankel recorded his 13th straight victory by winning the Juddmonte International Stakes.

It’s very difficult to explain to people who are not really “into” racing just how good this horse is.

Since records began 65 years ago and based on all the statistics people like Timeform put together, Frankel is the best horse ever.

He is No1, with no horse able to be compared with him.

Every horse he beats, and beats easily, goes on to win all the other best races, so to be there for his step up in trip to 10 furlongs was incredible.

It’s the equivalent of Usain Bolt – so brilliant over 100m and 200m – stepping up to run 300m for the first time.

We knew Frankel was a great miler (eight furlongs), but would he be able to step up? He did, and did it with flying colours.

There was another string to the story as well – that of his trainer Sir Henry Cecil.

When I was becoming engrossed in racing in the 1980s, Sir Henry and Steve Cauthen were the first great trainer-jockey partnership and it was great to see Sir Henry there on Wednesday.

The way he has brought Frankel on has been magical, especially with the tough fight he has had with cancer over the past several years.

He was looking a bit frail and wasn’t really able to do interviews afterwards, but he received a tremendous ovation wherever he went.

And when Frankel was led back in with Tom Queally punching the air, three cheers went up for Sir Henry – and everyone in the packed stands joined in.

We owe a big debt of gratitude to Prince Khalid Abdullah, too, for keeping the horse in training at four years of age.

Most top horses go off to stud at three and make millions upon millions – commercially it makes sense – but he’s kept Frankel racing at four because Sir Henry told him he would be a better horse at four.

How right he was!