Battaash on course for autumn assault

MARCUS TOWNEND

Trainer Charlie Hills will shoot for the moon with Battaash after the gelding made history with a third successive King George Stakes win.

Goodwood, with its five-furlong races mainly downhill, is a home game for the Jim Crowley-ridden 1-4 favourite with blistering pace, who held off runner-up Houtzen by threequarters of a length.

The five-year-old, runner-up to Blue Point in the King’s Stand Stakes at royal ascot, will have his sights set on the Flying Five over The Curragh’s stiffer gradients in September and be asked to try to win the Prix de L’abbaye on arc day at Longchamp for a second time in October.

He could also take in the Breeders’ Cup in California in november. Most immediately, Battaash will try to conquer his own everest in the nunthorpe Stakes at York next month. He has run in the race in the last two seasons only to have high hopes dashed. Hills (below) said: ‘We have to go to York. it is the only Group One race over five furlongs in england left this season. it will be pretty much the same horses we will be taking on. ‘For a five-year-old he has had very little racing and he is starting to take things in his stride now.’ Trainer richard Hannon was despondent when two-year-old Threat was beaten in Thursday’s richmond Stakes. But a smile returned to his face when Billesdon Brook (Oak Tree Stakes) and Beat Le Bon (Golden Mile Handicap) both delivered wins in course-record times. Beat Le Bon could return to Goodwood for the Group Two Celebration Mile later this month, while trainer Paul Cole’s Duke of Hazzard continued his progression with a half-length win from Turjomaan in the Thoroughbred Stakes.