It was a case of different year, same result as the brillaint Battaash was at his bombastic best; scorching to success in the King George Qatar Stakes for the fourth consecutive season. The first race covered by the ITV cameras saw the man of the moment, Tom Marquand, use his remarkable strength in the saddle to help bustle One Master to win in the Oak Tree Stakes by a short head. Despite meeting a number of challenges in running the William Haggas-trained mare showed plenty of grit to just get the better of Frankie Dettori’s mount, Valeria Messalina. There was drama aplenty in the 14:15 as Tilsit and Ryan Moore took the Group 3 Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes. The lightly raced son of Kingman had looked set to win decisively before then swerving across long-time leader My Oberon in the final furlong . The stewards enquiry saw the result stand, but Ryan Moore received a 5 day ban for careless riding. Next up, favourite Prompting faced a number of useful challengers in the Unibet Golden Mile Handicap. The 4-year old has been in the form of his life since a change of training base at the start of this year and he certainly didnβt fancy dropping the ball today. In the hands of in-form jockey Harry Bentley, Prompting looked every bit a top performer as he made short work of his rivals. The progressive miler has now won 3/3 this year and
as David O’Meara plots his next move, his lucky owners, The Seaside Syndicate will no doubt have their buckets and spades ready for a day of celebration in the sunshine very soon. Then came the star of the show, the 5th member of the ‘Glorious Five’ and the fastest horse on the planet, the mighty Battaash. Coming off a searing performance in last month’s Kings Stand at Royal Ascot, Charlie Hills and the team would have been confident that he could keep his Goodwood record blemish free. In truth, victory was never in doubt. The sprinting sensation took apart his rivals, who were scrapping for the lesser placings for the majority of the Group 2 contest. If anything, the great sprinter slightly idled when he hit the front but that didnβt stop the Bat mobile from smashing the track record for 5 furlongs, a record he set only last year. The day didn’t finish there, though. Pablo Escobar continued his fine Goodwood form as he landed the Group 3 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Glorious Stakes in smart fashion. It meant that Tom Marquand and William Haggis landed a memorable Goodwood double on terrestrial tv. Victory means
Tom Marquand is now just 3 winners back from
Oisin Murphy in the
Flat Jockeys’ Championship. Here is all the reaction to a searing performance from one of the very best sprinters we have seen for a long while…
