Battaash goes like a bullet but is just outgunned

Is it possible to be too fast? On this occasion perhaps so as connections of Battaash were left cursing his early exertions after watching Blue Point pickpocket the King’s Stand crown from under their noses.

“He was like a bullet from the gate and ideally we’d have got a lead,” said Battaash’s trainer Charlie Hills, looking a little green around the gills.

“We didn’t really want to be making the running but he broke so well and had to do it the hard way. The winner is a good horse but we gave him a nice lead.”

Replay, result and analysis

Having missed the break when winning the Temple Stakes, rider Jim Crowley was surprised to see his partner ping the gates this time. He was merely a passenger from that point.

“I didn’t expect him to jump so fast,” he said. “I got two lengths from the stalls and you can’t mess around with him, so I sat against him from there and he just got tired in the last 50 yards.

“It’s a hard track to make the running and you’re always there to be shot at. He’s still a very good horse, it just didn’t go his way.”

A step up to six furlongs for the July Cup now looks to be on hold for Battaash, with the Flying Five in Ireland among the possible targets.

His blistering early speed was too much for last year’s winner Lady Aurelia to handle, as she trailed home in seventh, bringing to an end her unbeaten record at Royal Ascot.

“She definitely didn’t have it today.” said rider John Velazquez. “She broke well and I got a good position but she just didn’t fire. Last year was the same thing, I sat behind and finished really well, but she just didn’t have it and I was done early.”

Connections of third-placed Mabs Cross celebrated as if she had won, with trainer Michael Dods convinced the best is still to come.

“She travelled the best I’ve seen and they were winging,” said the trainer. “She’s improving and isn't the finished article yet. She’ll be a proper Group 1 horse next year.

"The Nunthorpe would probably be the next target unless we decided to go into the July Cup at a later stage.”

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