Battersea is a 3yo that could be worth following through handicaps this season, but he will first have to break his maiden, which he could well do for Roger Varian tonight. Battersea showed massive signs of greenness and inexperience on his first start last October in Newmarket over a mile. This turned out to be a race with good follow-up form - of the 8 runners, 5 were placed on their next start.
Battersea followed suit and showed massive improvement on his second start, and was given a great ride from Andrea Atzeni. He stayed on under pressure coming up to the line to get 3rd, with a fast finisher winning the race. The step up to 1m 2f at Haydock suited him very well as was expected, and the race itself also turned out to be good form - the horse who took 2nd from his grasp won next time out.
Battersea should do well once he starts running in handicaps, and Roger Varian's three-year-olds have enjoyed a 22% strike rate in handicaps over the last three seasons. I could see more improvement yet to come with another step up in trip to a mile and a half. Tonight, however, he stays over a mile and a quarter to attempt to win a maiden before going on to bigger and better things in handicap company.
He's an exciting prospect for later on in the year, and hopefully he gets the job done tonight, in order to allow him to move on to successes at a higher level.
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