Rated 136, Battaash has the distinction of being the highest-rated Flat horse in Europe, according to Timeform. Owned by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum and trained by Charles Hills, in Lambourn, Berkshire, the six-year-gelding was unbeaten in three starts in 2020, winning the Group One King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, the Group Two King George Stakes at Goodwood and the Group One Nunthorpe Stakes at York. Indeed, the son of Dark Angel – a leading sire of sprinters – was winning the latter contest for the second year running, having previously broken the course record, set by Dayjur in 1990, when impressively beating Soldier’s Call by 3¾ lengths, in a time of 55.90 seconds, in 2019.
All told, at the time of writing, Battaash has won 13 of his 23 starts, including four at the highest, Group One level, and amassed £1,755,420 in win and place prize money. He was a ready, 4-length winner of an ordinary novice stakes race at Bath on his racecourse debut in May 2016, but did not emerge as a top class sprinter until his three-year-old campaign in 2017. That year, he won four of his five starts, including the King George Stakes at Goodwood – a race that he would win for the next three seasons running – and the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, which represented his first victory at the highest level. His first Group One win had appeared only a matter of time after his demolition of 2016 King’s Stand Stakes-winner Profitable at Goodwood; following an impressive 2¼-length victory, winning jockey Jim Crowley likened his previous home work to ‘riding a motorbike up the gallops’.