Yorkshire Ebor Festival, York Racecourse, Yorks
THE Ebor meeting at York may not have had the superstar staples Enable and Stradivarius this year, but it boasted the three other strongest candidates for Horse of the Year; Ghaiyyath, Love and the fastest thing on four legs, Battaash.
It is a job to know whether to give most prominence to Ghaiyyath’s front-running style or the, as yet, untapped potential of Love – a filly who has now won her three Group Ones this season by an aggregate of nearly 20 lengths and without challenge.
However, it was Battaash, winner of his second Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes on Friday, 21 August, who showed us a different side to his character. Normally he has so much speed he puts his races to bed by halfway. But the conditions were all against him on the Knavesmire and – still a length down on filly Que Amoro – with a furlong left to run, Jim Crowley had to persuade Battaash to knuckle down in the rain-softened ground, usually an anathema to speed.
Brilliance is not always a full brother to fighting qualities and, while it might have taken Battaash a long time to mature mentally, the six-year-old stuck his head down, fighting like a lion to get past Michael Dods’ filly to win by a length. He remains unbeaten in three starts of this truncated summer.
However, “the moment” for me was in the paddock before the race. Battaash’s lad, Bob Grace, walks with a slight limp but the horse strolls at Bob’s pace (with most sprinters it is vice versa) and looks down at his lad with almost paternal concern.
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