What’s your favourite thing about York races?
It might be the tree-lined walk up to the Knavesmire, or the slightly slower stroll back to the ancient city afterwards trying to avoid eye contact with a young busker.
It might be the County Stand; the red, white and blue barber poles framing the final quarter mile as they thunder down the straight.
It might be the Yorkshire growlers (pork pies!), the Champagne Terrace, meeting your mates for a pint in the Edwardian Weighing Room next to the live band.
If none of those perhaps it’s the gorgeous Parade Ring or walking past the Frankel statue upon entrance with all the excitement and anticipation you get from a day at the races.
The races – if you’re here it’s probably the races – the Juddmonte International, the Yorkshire Oaks, the Sky Bet Ebor; the history, the memories, the new puzzles.
For me, it’s all the above, particularly the growlers, but if there’s one race that gets me jiggy more than the rest it’s the Coolmore Nunthorpe Stakes over five furlongs.
There isn’t another Group 1 in the UK and Ireland that rewards brazen speed quite like the Nunthorpe, the five furlongs at York quicker than Ascot’s and the Curragh’s where they race the King Charles III and the Flying Five Stakes.
In that respect the Nunthorpe is unique, its winners regularly stopping the clock at 56 seconds and change, with Lochangel, Oasis Dream, La Cucaracha, Mecca’s Angel, Winter Power and Live In The Dream members of that particular club.
For the best part of three decades Dayjur held the track record after winning the 1990 Nunthorpe in a blistering 56:16, so there was something quite beautiful about Battaash, in the same blue and white Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum silks, smashing that record 29 years later.
Everything came together for Charlie Hills’ sprinter on August 23, 2019.
He had matured beyond the temperamental colt that had got too worked up beforehand in previous Nunthorpes, while retaining his brilliance, and on a day where Timeform recorded the ground as ‘Firm’ he was given the perfect drag into the race by Ornate and Soldier’s Call.
They had to give way to him around halfway – he wanted to go quicker – and when Jim Crowley asked him to go he went indeed, scorching clear by almost four lengths in a clock-stopping 55:90.
Alas, there doesn’t look to be a Battaash in this year’s Nunthorpe. But after the hottest of summers you’d bet your bank on the ground being fast and when that’s the case on the Knavesmire only the speediest of the speedy may apply.
With that in mind, you can certainly see why the market has latched onto the American three-year-old, Bacio.
Wesley Ward’s horse made a mockery of a mark of 100 in the Palace Of Holyroodhouse Stakes at Royal Ascot, and while the Nunthorpe is a big step up from a three-year-old-only handicap, his chance is clear.
In a nutshell, he looks quick, very quick, the visual impression he made backed up by an excellent timefigure, and in a division that is lacking a star he has the potential to break through a barrier his Nunthorpe rivals simply don’t look capable of reaching.
He could well make up for the same trainer’s agonising defeat in 2017, when Lady Aurelia, an impressive winner herself at Royal Ascot that summer, was beaten a nose by Marsha, much to the chagrin of the runner-up’s jockey, Frankie Dettori, who pointed to the sky and put his finger to his lips as if he had won by half the track.
Another great Nunthorpe moment.
Maybe Bacio will deliver another on Friday, August 21. He’s currently the 3/1 favourite to do so, but if he doesn’t live up to his billing then the race is wide open.
Last year’s winner Asfoora going in again would be some story on her swansong and King Charles III one-two Mission Central and Rayevka look likely to be back for more, too. Then there’s American Affair, who bounced back in style last time at Goodwood, while from the same meeting impressive Molecomb winner Pershaada could represent the two-year-olds for Richard Hannon, the flying filly bidding to become the first juvenile to win the Nunthorpe since Kingsgate Native in 2007.
After that the picture gets murky. A familiar cast of names that seem to come up short at the top-level time and time again.
But if there’s one I’d pick out from the potential also-rans it’s Karl Burke’s Night Raider at double-figure prices.
Here is a horse that has disappointed on his last two starts, on the face of it, finishing 10th in the King Charles III and the same position in the King George Qatar Stakes behind American Affair.
But he was drawn on the wrong side at Ascot and he raced under a penalty at Goodwood, so it could be worth remembering the flying start he made to his season at Newmarket and Haydock when winning the Palace House and Temple Stakes in good style.
Indeed, there are similarities between him and Battaash. Both are sons of Dark Angel, both looked much better after being gelded and both needed their natural exuberance channelling in a certain way to get the best out of them.
I’m not saying Night Raider has Battaash’s raw talent, but he has got speed and the way he started his campaign he looked every inch a player in the Nunthorpe.
He still might be.
And while you have to forgive him some below-par efforts and remember the pace he showed when things were in his favour, that’s not a bad way to approach York.
It’s a notoriously tricky track for punters to make a profit at, but when the ground is riding fast you need speed, over nearly all the trips, and that will almost certainly be worth bearing in mind before most of the races again this year.
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