Jim Crowley: “Goodwood should bring out Battaash’s best again”
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Coral ambassador previews his Friday rides at Glorious Goodwood
Rocques is a lovely French horse with some very good two-year-old form, winning all her first three starts, but she just hasn’t been able to build on it since.
There are some very good horses in here. You have a Guineas winner in Billesdon Brook and also the very talented Jubiloso, who I think is the one to beat in the race. My horse will need to return to her very best to figure at the finish but she has the ability.
Turjomaan is a very smart horse and he won his last start at Newcastle really nicely. He’s won on turf before too, at Ascot, and is a horse that I do really like.
We won’t want the ground to get any softer at all, so fingers crossed that the ground is good for this race. If it is, he will have a cracking chance.
He did brilliantly to win the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot when the ground wasn’t in his favour and although he finished 5th at York in the John Smith’s Cup after that it was another great run. He was drawn so wide and stepping up in trip and he did fantastically again.
That gives me real confidence that he will run a big race here. He does carry top weight off the back of those runs but he will be there or there abouts and has everything in line to run a big race.
Battaash is, of course, the horse I am looking forward to riding most this week. He is looking to win the race for the third time in a row and I cannot wait to ride him here once more.
Five furlongs around Ascot always seems to stretch him a little bit, it feels more like five and a half the way you travel.
Even in defeat there he still ran well, only narrowly being beaten by Blue Point, and being back at Goodwood should bring out the best in him once again. He absolutely loves it round here.
There are no horses that hugely worry me in the race and it would be great to win this race three years on the spin.
Jim
