Ebor Festival - Battaash is even better when no crowds are in, says Jim Crowley

The former champion jockey was speaking ahead of Friday’s renewal of the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes at York which the superstar horse won in a course record time 12 months ago.

This season, Battaash has won the King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot before a historic fourth successive win in the King George Stakes at Goodwood.

And many believe the absence of racegoers this summer has helped the horse, trained by Charlie Hills and owned by Sheikh Hamdam al Maktoum, to learn to relax in the preliminaries.

Beaten in both the 2017 and 2018 renewals of the Nunthorpe when Battaash’s temperament proved suspect, Crowley is looking forward to this week’s five furlong race.

“He’s certainly not getting any slower, anyway – he’s just unbelievable to ride,” said Crowley.

“I’d forgotten what he was like, so I went to ride him before Ascot and I was just grinning all the way home. You forget how special he is – he’s so quick.

“In the past, getting him to the start was the most important thing – getting him down calm. But touch wood, this year he’s lobbed down to post at Ascot and Goodwood – Craig Witheford picks him up when he gets there, and it’s all routine for him.

“Before, you’d get on him in the paddock, he’d be tensing up and you’d canter to post and he’d be grinding his teeth.

“He was like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off and wanted to do everything at a 100 miles per hour, but he’s been so much more relaxed now.”

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