Battaash and Jim Crowley storm to Nunthorpe Stakes victory at Ebor Festival

Both traits were self-evident as the six-year-old dug deep to deny the unheralded Que Amoro to win a second successive Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York’s Ebor Festival.

This was evidenced by the horse’s winning time of 57.38 seconds for the five furlongs. Slower than last year’s course record of 55.9 seconds, but rain and gusting winds of 32mph were not perfect conditions.

And, unlike Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood where the only uncertainty at halfway was the size of the winning margin, Battaash found himself trailing Que Amoro entering the final two furlongs.

Yet, after the horses eyeballed each other as they scorched across the turf in the region of 40mph, Battaash’s superiority prevailed.

He had a length in hand over the Michael Dods-trained runner-up with Moss Gill third for Middleham’s James Bethell. This Group One success was the culmination of a day of domination for victorious jockey Jim Crowley, 42, who won the first four races at accumulative odds of 127-1 in the iconic blue and white colours of his retained owner Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum.

Yet, while Alfaatik, Enbihaar and Minzaal were all worthy winners in their own right as Crowley closes in on his landmark 2,000th career winner, it is the Charlie Hills-trained Battaash which is taking the jockey’s career to new heights.

The horse’s 13th win from 23 starts, Battaash now has the consistency to match his undoubted ability as connections learn more about the sprinter’s previously fragile temperament.

This includes the horse’s devoted groom Bob Grace who has spent his entire life in racing – he got up at 3.45am to drive the horse from Lambourn to York for the race.

Meanwhile, former jockey Henry Morshead, an important cog in the Hills machine, was despatched to the start to help if racing’s box office horse boiled over, as he did in the 2017 and 2018 renewals of the Nunthorpe.

And the horse’s fragile disposition is such that leading jockey Hayley Turner, also a member of the ITV Racing team, was at the start telling onlookers not to put up umbrellas, or do anything, to ‘spook’ the horse.

Such attention to detail paid off. “Relief is the right word,” said the aforementioned Hills who will no doubt, form and fitness permitting, have one eye in 12 months time on Battaash trying to match Sharpo’s three Nunthorpe wins from 1980-82.

“It’s not easy conditions out there. There’s a massive tailwind, the ground is loose – and obviously not ideal for him. He had to knuckle down and get the job done – and he did that. All credit to everyone.”

As for Crowley who spent his formative years riding under National Hunt rules for, amongst others, Yorkshire racing greats Sue and Harvey Smith, he now has the big race wins to do justice to his numerical consistency.

He said: “He’s an amazing horse. We’re lucky to have him about.

“He had to dig very deep. That horse (Que Amoro) was hard to pass. We went one hell of a gallop – there’s a tailwind, the wind is blowing across the track towards the stands rail.

“For him, he doesn’t normally have to battle. He usually has his races won sat halfway, but today he stuck his neck out and battled it out. It was a Catch 22. It was a bit of an outsider, and I had to try not to give it enough rope. Anyway we got it just right.”

Crowley added: “He’s the horse of a lifetime, you get one in a career, a horse like this. It’s been a golden summer.”

Michael Dods reflected with pride on such a fine run in defeat from his filly Que Amoro under Paul Mulrennan.

The County Durham trainer said: “She would have preferred faster ground, and so would he, but I didn’t think we’d get that close – so she’s run a blinder. To get that close to a horse like that is a hell of a performance.”

Especially when the horse in question is Battaash.

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James Mitchinson