Lomu ready to tackle rivals
● Sprinter chases Musselburgh prize ● Battaash can repeat Goodwood feat
Lomu returns to the scene of his course and distance debut success to run in the feature race at Musselburgh tonight.
Having won over the same 5f in April 2016, Keith Dalgleish’s charge faces six rivals in the Bernard Hunter Mobile Cranes Handicap.
He was named after all black legend Jonah Lomu by owner Steve Macdonald who said: “We’ve always rated him highly and now we have finally discovered we have a pretty useful sprinter on our hands.
“He’s won at seven furlongs and we’ve tried him over a mile but he’s shown us what he can do at five and was pretty impressive at Hamilton Park a fortnight ago. The handicapper has taken his revenge a wee bit by raising him 9lbs but he won convincing by six lengths and is hopefully still improving.”
Among the opposition to Lomu are four-time course and distance winner Economic Crisis, top-weight and 2015 Epsom Dash hero Desert Law and Royal Brave, another with four wins at the East Lothian venue to his name. Mark Johnston is on the brink of becoming the trainer with the highest number of wins in history and Danzig is his only runner on the card in the Boogie In The Morning Handicap. The top-weight, who has had a busy season already, made all at Goodwood in June and his front-running style should be well suited to Musselburgh.
At Glorious Goodwood today, Battaash can repeat his victory of last year in the Qatar King George Stakes.
It was in this five-furlong heat 12 months ago that Charlie Hills’ charge really marked himself out as a horse on the up, and although his progress was subsequently checked next time, his Abbaye win at the end of the year showed he is truly top rank. The four-yearold has certainly not done anything this term to disprove that opinion, winning the Temple Stakes at Haydock before having to settle for second in the King’s Stand at Royal Ascot.
While that run might be disappointing on the face of it, Battaash was prominent throughout and those early exertions possibly just told as Blue Point had more in reserve on the run to the line.
Battaash is rather highlystrung but Goodwood’s atmosphere is less high octane than Ascot and it will be a surprise if he cannot regain the winning thread.
One-time Classic hope South Seas can finally enjoy a substantial pay day in the Unibet Golden Mile Handicap.
Group One-placed as a juvenile, he only had two outings last year and has seemingly taken a bit of time to really get rolling this term. However, his recent fourth in a competitive event at Sandown caught the eye, trying to come from last place before suffering a bit of trouble in running and eventually finishing sixth. He remains on a rating of 105 and could have been well placed here by Andrew Balding.
Betty F could be something of a dark horse in the L’ormarins Queens Plate Oak Tree Stakes.
Jeremy Noseda felt her good enough to be pitched into Group One company as a juvenile, and, while she ultimately fell short, it does at least give an indication of the regard in which she is held.