Battaash

Those with a need for speed should look no further than Battaash. 

The son of Dark Angel has shown speed from day one but it was only in 2017, as a three-year-old, that he really began to flourish – winning over five furlongs at Sandown in a course record time before following up there in a Group 3 contest and then dazzling in the King George Stakes .

After those three victories he was a leading fancy for the 2017 Nunthorpe Stakes but he got restless before the start – a trait his connections have always had to guard against – and he finished a below-par fourth in a dramatic renewal won by Marsha.

Battaash emphatically turned the tables in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Chantilly – putting up an electric performance to win by four lengths.

In 2018 he returned with a comeback win in the Temple Stakes at Haydock before going off at 9/4 for the King’s Stand at Royal Ascot. He behaved well before the race, which his connections had been anxious about, but when the gates opened did too much, too soon and was collared late on by Blue Point.

Next time out Battaash successfully defended his Qatar King George Stakes at Goodwood in superb style and as a consequence he was sent off 4-5 for the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes. But, like 12 months earlier, he failed to reproduce his best in finishing fourth.

He was also not at his best when defending his Prix de l’Abbaye crown but he began 2019 with a bang – producing an electric display to become the first back-to-back winner of the Temple Stakes since Mind Games in 1995-96. Beforehand, Hills had said he had never been 100 per cent happy with Battaash in 2018 but that he had been delighted with him this term.