Glorious Goodwood 2017 – Battaash has ground worries ahead of Friday’s Qatar King George Stakes
THE ground will be an unknown for the exciting Battaash in Friday's Qatar King George Stakes at Goodwood.
Charlie Hills' three-year-old burst on to the scene with impressive wins at Sandown on his last two starts, but he has never run on ground this soft.
"We don't know what the ground will be," said Angus Gold, racing manager to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum.
"Obviously it was desperate on Wednesday. I suggest it might be sticky, but I just don't know.
"He's had knee problems so you never know if they will go on this ground. It's going to blunt his speed a bit, I would have thought.
"I don't want to put people off but until we see him go on it, there is no way of knowing.
"Charlie is very keen to run him so I can only imagine we'll be there.
"He was very good at Sandown. You certainly can't fault what he's done this year. I'm just mindful about last year - plus the ground is an unknown."
Another horse who has ground worries surrounding him is Take Cover who bids for his third win in the race.
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Trainer David Griffiths said: "He worked on Monday and worked well. He's ready to go.
"I'm not worried about the draw as we're near the favourite (Battaash) and I would imagine the rest will follow us.
"The one worry would obviously be the ground. He can handle soft, but he's better on quick ground and in these races you want everything spot-on.
"Having said that, they've all got to go through it, our horse looks a million dollars and I think he goes there with a big chance. It would be great to complete the three-timer."
Clive Cox runs both King's Stand Stakes runner-up Profitable and Temple Stakes winner Priceless - though the testing ground could be more of a problem to the latter.
"Of the two of mine, I think Profitable would probably be more favoured on the ground," said the Lambourn handler.
"He has winning form in soft ground and I thought he ran a fantastic race at Ascot on ground that was quicker than ideal for him.
"He was giving 9lb to Lady Aurelia and I was very proud of his performance
"Priceless probably wouldn't be as well suited on softer ground, but she's in good form."
Marsha was just a head behind Profitable when third in the King's Stand and has since suffered a narrow, but surprise, defeat by Caspian Prince in Ireland.
"She came back from Ireland fine and because we felt it was quite a long time until the Nunthorpe at York, we thought we'd let her run here first," said Dan Downie, racing manager for owners Elite Racing Club.
"Five furlongs at Goodwood is probably as sharp as she'd wanted, so we were hoping for genuine good ground rather than rattling quick ground, but obviously soft ground wouldn't be ideal."