Battaash blows away his rivals in record time
Scintillating sprinter clocks under 56 seconds Stradivarius becomes a millionaire yet again
Battaash has threatened to do it ever since he was a three-year-old, but it finally all came together for Sheikh Hamdan’s gelding in a British Group One when he won yesterday’s Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes by a devastating 3¼ lengths and lowered the course record set by Dayjur in 1990 to below 56 seconds.
Soldier’s Call finished second but it was, essentially, Battaash first, the rest nowhere. From stall one the five-year-old got a good tow into the race before Jim Crowley engaged the rocket boosters two furlongs out. In a few strides the race was all over and the horse’s York ‘hoodoo’ a distant memory.
“He won that with a bit of style,” said trainer Charlie Hills by way of understatement about a time of just 55.91 seconds. “He loves York now! To lower Dayjur’s record – I was brought up with him and I never thought I would see a faster horse although, to be fair, Willie Carson once said Battaash could be the next Dayjur.
“He is a superstar. He has always had the ability but now he is putting it together. I was half thinking we would miss this race and go to Ireland [for the Flying Five] but Sheikh Hamdan said he would be at York but not in Ireland. It is very special. You would think the track was made for him. It is difficult but he has a lot more experience and now he will go down as one of the fastest horses ever.”
York racegoers were not only treated to a brilliant demonstration of sprinting, at the other end of the stamina-speed equation Stradivarius, developing into one of the great Cup horses, collected a second Weatherbys-hamilton £1million stayers bonus and racked up his ninth win in a row when he beat poor old Dee Ex Bee into second for the third race in succession in the Lonsdale Cup.
Bjorn Nielsen’s homebred won by 1¼ lengths but it is a job to tell just how much better than the rest he is because he only ever does enough. However, it must be said what ever has been put in front of him he has beaten with what, in the staying division, is a killer turn of foot.
The irony of his career is that his owner-breeder Nielsen was hoping, when he put his mare Private Life to Sea The Stars, to breed a Derby winner. But even if he does achieve that long held ambition, he admits the horse would not be as good as Stradivarius.
“Dee Ex Bee comes at him every time and empties his bucket, who knows what he would do against horses 3lbs better than these because he just gets it done,” said Nielsen.
“I thought he had won the Gold Cup fairly comfortably this year and was only hunting them up in the Goodwood Cup but they are not motorbikes; they have still got to be spot on and the jockey has got to ride a good race.”
The first £1million Sky Bet Ebor Handicap, putting it on a par with the Grand National in terms of value and making it, by some margin, Europe’s richest Flat handicap, has created a better race in terms of the quality of contestant but it does nothing to make finding the winner any easier. David Elsworth still retains faith in Desert Skyline and the application of a visor for the first time can perhaps eke out the required improvement to win.