BATTAASH (Charlie Hills/Jim Crowley) never looked in any danger as he collected his third consecutive King George Qatar Stakes, at odds of 1/4 from Houtzen (Martyn Meade/Ryan Moore) and Ornate (David Griffiths/Phil Dennis).

While his margin of victory over the ex-Australian Houtzen was only three-quarters of a length, that was largely due to Crowley not pressing the button on the winner when he was able to lengthen, and although the runner-up narrowed the margin in the last 100 yards, the prohibitively-priced favourite never looked like getting into a battle.