BATT COULD HAVE A BALL
BATTAASH is fancied to bring his ‘A’ game to the race in which he has unfinished business with Blue Point and Mabs Cross from 12 months ago.
Along with mountains of ability, Charlie Hills’ speedball has a hairtrigger temperament, and it’s likely the highly charged atmosphere of the 2018 fixture’s opening day proved too much.
Battaash threatened to boil over before the start and ultimately performed below his brilliant best in finishing second, beaten a length and three-quarters, Blue Point, Mabs to with Cross
a neck away in third. But the evidence of his comeback in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock last month is that Battaash, whose career has hitherto been held in check by his mental frailty, is finally growing up.
More laid back than usual during the preliminaries, Jim Crowley’s mount hardly came out of second gear to beat Alpha Delphini, with Mabs Cross, who shouldered a penalty for her success in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye last October, in third.
Hills reports Battaash, a scintillating winner of the 2017 Prix de l’Abbaye, to be more at peace with himself in his training environment and this is the perfect opportunity for my selection to show what he is made of.
Blue Point and Mabs Cross are again solid contenders for the medals, while, of those at bigger prices, John Quinn’s Signora Cabello
won the Queen Mary Stakes last year and will be suited by the return to this course and distance.