Battaash blitzes his King George rivals
Sprinter returns to form and scores impressively Dettori makes up for lost time with 142-1 double
When he is good he is very good, but when he is bad he is horrid. Henry Longfellow did not have Battaash, a four-year-old gelding, in mind, when he wrote the nursery rhyme There Was a Little Girl, but on this enigmatic sprinter’s day it is doubtful there is a match for him over five furlongs in Europe.
Yesterday, he won a second King George Qatar Stakes by a wide margin – four lengths, the same as his win in last year’s Prix de l’abbaye at Longchamp – but hitherto his pre- race behaviour has occasionally been an Achilles’ heel.
However, the signs yesterday were good when he went to post like a child’s first pony, before coming back like a bullet to beat course specialist Take Cover, whose King George record now stands at two wins, two seconds and a fifth.
“It’s great,” said trainer Charlie Hills. “The race split on us a bit at the start, but he was going so well Jim [Crowley] had to be happy with him going forward. He’s back to his best, if not a career best.
“There is a great programme for him now, as there is a three-week gap to the Nunthorpe, then the Flying Five [Curragh] and l’abbaye. I wasn’t really happy with him going into Royal Ascot, he still had his winter coat.”
York is where he boiled over last year, and getting him across the Knavesmire will be more of a challenge. “I don’t think he was right at the time and it was playing on his mind in last year’s Nunthorpe,” said Hills. “It was also his fourth quick run. We will saddle him in the stables and think about boxing him over to the course. It might just be that he is growing up as he gets more experienced.”
The Queen has had mixed fortunes on the Downs this week. But after Call To Mind broke down in the Goodwood Cup on Tuesday, which has necessitated retirement, Her Majesty enjoyed better fortune, when Seniority, the well backed 9-2 joint favourite, won the Unibet Golden Mile.
It was a third Golden Mile in a row for the week’s leading jockey, Ryan Moore, and was the third of William Haggas’s four winners so far this week. Haggas later won the Oak Tree Stakes when Pretty Baby got up to win close home.
Frankie Dettori admitted he could not have chosen a worse six days to pick up a ban, missing three Group One races, including two at Goodwood, but he was back in the winner’s enclosure after a superbly judged ride on Regal Reality, a horse for the notebook, in the Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes.
“Sir Michael [Stoute] told me he had a good turn of foot, but when I looked up 2½ furlongs out we had eight lengths to make up and I thought, ‘This will test him’,” said the jockey. “But he put some nice horses to bed in a good manner.”
Dettori completed a 142-1 double when Desert Path put a disappointing Ascot run behind him to win the final race of the day.
Today, Foxtrot Lady can win the Unibet Stewards Cup. She won a very strong handicap at Newmarket last time, a race which both Magical Memory and Dancing Star, her half-sister, won en route to Goodwood’s big sprint handicap.