Dods Eyes Battaash Rematch

[Wandering Eyes]

Trainer Michael Dods was taking plenty of positives out of the performance of his stable star Mabs Cross (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) who finished third in the G2 Temple S. at Haydock on Saturday. Despite being blown away by the brilliant winner Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) Dods has reasons to believe that his filly can close the gap when the pair meet again in the G1 King’s Stand S. at Royal Ascot. “On his day Battaash is nigh unbeatable. I’ve seen nothing to beat him on his day, but he doesn’t always have his day. I was very impressed with the winner, but we still ran well and we’ll have the rematch at Ascot when we’ll be 5lb better off on a stiffer track. A bit of juice [in the ground] would help us too- which we should get, with it being the first day of the meeting,” Dods said. Mabs Cross had to shoulder a group 1 penalty on Saturday due to her win in the G1 Qatar Prix de l’Abbaye last year and having made a successful seasonal reappearance in the G3 Zoustar Palace House S. at Newmarket, Dods feels Haydock over five furlongs may not play to her strengths. “At Ascot and Newmarket there’s a hill, and she finishes strong, so it suits her – she just struggles to tag on at Haydock. Paul [Mulrennan] said at one point he looked over and Jim Crowley took a pull but he was going flat out. We discussed after the race trying her over six furlongs. But she’s doing so well at five it’s hard to alter anything. I think we’ll try her over six at some stage,” he added.

Haydock also provided one of the shocks of the season so far when Calyx (GB) (Kingman {GB}) got beaten in the G2 Sandy Lane S. Despite his three length defeat to Hello Youmzain (Fr) (Kodiac {GB}) connections hope the ‘TDN Rising Star‘ remains on course for Royal Ascot to tackle the G1 Commonwealth Cup. “It was obviously not the run we expected from Calyx, but he seems fine this morning and yesterday,” Teddy Grimthorpe, Khalid Abdullah’s racing manager told the Racing Post. “We’ll keep an eye on him for the foreseeable future, but we would still be looking at Ascot. We’ll have to see, something may turn up, but nothing has come to light at the moment.”

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