Henry Cecil has always had the X-factor. Twelve months ago, as he stood beside the heaving flanks of a strapping two-year-old that had just made a winning debut, he ventured of the colt: “I'm just not sure that he'll stay a mile and a half.”

Cecil had the Derby in mind for Twice Over even then. And while he has not run the horse over 12 furlongs to this day, his assessment of Twice Over's ability has been vindicated. His next assignment is the Emirates Champion Stakes, when he will be ridden for the first time by Tom Queally. It was Queally who yesterday put Twice Over through his paces on a pristine autumnal morning at Newmarket.

The detail cemented what has become apparent: that Queally has supplanted Ted Durcan as Cecil's preferred jockey. So much so that Queally, who has spent the past three years riding out for the Warren Place handler, already refers to Cecil as “the boss”.

For most of the season Durcan has ridden both Twice Over and Cecil's second Champion Stakes runner, Phoenix Tower. He rides neither on Saturday week. Frankie Dettori takes over aboard Phoenix Tower should he not be claimed by Godolphin.

“I feel the horse [Phoenix Tower] wouldn't mind a change and I think Frankie will suit the horse,” Cecil said. “The two of them got on well in a racecourse gallop last week.” And of his longer-term riding arrangements, the doyen of trainers said: “I won't retain a jockey next season, I will just leave it for the moment.”

It was Durcan, of course, who returned Cecil to the classic arena when he guided Light Shift to win last year's Oaks. But there was no sign of him yesterday, when Cecil worked a handful of mostly young horses. Evidence of the trainer's uplifting renaissance took the form of a pair of two-year-old colts, one a close relative of Light Shift, the other a half-brother to Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby winner. Nevertheless, Cecil remains restless.

“It has been a good season even though there have been far too many seconds and thirds,” he reflected. Phoenix Tower illustrates his complaint: the four-year-old has finished runner-up in his last four starts, each of them a group one race. Yet while his horses remain in rude health, the same is not true of their tutor.

Last week Cecil underwent another course of chemotherapy. He is in the third year of his fight against a cancer that wretchedly refuses to subside - although it has not spread. “I haven't won the battle yet,” he said, “But I will get there one day, I hope. It's a nuisance, but in the end I'm hoping - I am sure - that I will be all right.” Indeed, he looked so tired at the Tattersalls yearling sales on Tuesday evening that his dawn presence on the gallops was surely wishful thinking.

Yet he was in sparkling form. As three horses galloped past in unison, he mused: “They are very slow. You could multiply all their feet together and they still wouldn't win a race.” Even after 40 years, his child-like enthusiasm for the game remains infectious. It is why he is cherished well beyond the Newmarket parish he once dominated for so long.

Such hegemony is beyond him now. He is a relic from the days when British owner-breeders dominated the sport. Nevertheless, he has no regrets beyond a yearning for horses with which to compete in elite company.

“I don't want 200 horses any more,” he said. “I'm happy with just over 100, but you need the quality.” Cecil quickly dismisses the idea that he might add to his ten trainers' titles. “It is very difficult to actually be top of the list, but I'm happy as long as I'm in the top ten. Batallions don't usually beat armies. I tried to buy six or seven yearlings at the sales [on Tuesday] but was completely blown out. I don't have that kind of money.

“It is a challenge,” he continued. “I have enjoyed training more in the last two years than for many years. For many reasons I was on a downward spiral, but you have to pull yourself up. I don't like being an also-ran. I always do better when my back's against the wall.”