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Those with a need for speed should look no further than the Charlie Hills-trained Battaash.
The five-furlong specialist is recognised as the fastest horse in the world and scaled new heights in 2020 when winning the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot plus a second Colmore Nunthorpe Stakes and a remarkable fourth King George Stakes triumph at Goodwood.
His CV also includes him becoming (in 2019) the first back-to-back winner of the Temple Stakes since Mind Games in 1995-96.
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 for the first time. Little did we know then that he would also win on the Downs in 2018, 2019 and 2020!
He was also a brilliant winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye at Chantilly that year – putting up an electric performance to win by four lengths.
Battaash’s fans have had to take the occasional blow to the chin. He found Blue Point too strong in the 2018 and 2019 renewals of the King’s Stand Stakes and his sometimes restless nature before races as a younger horse were factors in disappointing runs in the Nunthorpe in 2017 and 2018.
The restructured calendar in 2020 meant that Battaash couldn’t take up his normal outing in the Temple Stakes and instead had to go straight to the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot.
Without old rival Blue Point to contend with, Battaash grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck and gained a deserved victory under regular jockey Jim Crowley. Then came a fourth King George success at Goodwood before a second triumph in the Nunthorpe.