AIDAN O’Brien saddled his third winner of the Group 2 Vintage Stakes as Battleground justified 13/8 favouritism in cosy style. The first foal of O’Brien’s Breeders’ Cup Turf and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Found, Battleground has a lot to live up to, but he showed when winning Royal Ascot’s Chesham Stakes that he was no prodigal son.

Waited with, he took a keen hold behind the leaders, but found plenty when produced by Ryan Moore at the two-furlong pole, and quickly built up a lead that he never looked like relinquishing. He passed the post two lengths ahead of his market rival Devious Company (Tom Dascombe/Richard Kingscote), with Youth Spirit (Andrew Balding/Oisin Murphy) a staying-on third having taken a bump coming out of the stalls.

Well-grown colt

This is a race in which Pinatubo really announced himself last season, winning by five lengths, and while the winner was neither so impressive nor meeting such a deep field, his performance looked well up to scratch for the contest, and much better than was required of him in a substandard Chesham. He is a strong, well-grown colt, and physically the type to excel at up to a mile this year.

It’s tempting to compare him with War Decree, another son of War Front, who won this race for the stable in 2016, but didn’t really train on. O’Brien will hope he takes more after his other Vintage winner, the 2014 winner Highland Reel, who went on to land seven Group 1 races from Arlington to Ascot, and Sha Tin to Santa Anita.

Aidan O’Brien outlined future plans for his impressive winner afterwards: “We think his next run will be the National Stakes, everything being well, but he is a horse we have always loved. He is a big, powerful horse and very genuine, and that’s the way his dam was as well.

“We think he will be a miler, probably. He is a strong traveller, but he is by War Front, and being out of Found we thought he might get a mile and that is what we would be hoping for.”

SPACE Blues (Charlie Appleby/William Buick) had the best form on paper coming into the event, and the 2/1 market leader ran out the comfortable winner of the Group 2 Lennox Stakes, quickening clear a furlong out to beat Duke Of Hazzard (Paul & Oliver Cole/David Probert) by two lengths, with a slightly unlucky Escobar (David O’Meara/Danny Tudhope) beaten by two and a half lengths in total having been hampered when the winner began his run.

As expected, Marie’s Diamond made the running, but he was beginning to weaken when the winner pounced, and although Safe Voyage was short of room on the rail, which had something of a knock-on effect, there were no real hard luck stories behind, and this is an easy result to get a handle on.

Space Blues had already beaten Safe Voyage in the Listed Spring Trophy at Haydock this term, and followed that by grabbing the Group 3 Prix de la Porte Maillot at Longchamp, where he beat another of his Lennox rivals in the shape of D’Bai.

He was placed in both the Prix Jean Prat (seven furlongs) and the Prix Maurice de Gheest (six and a half furlongs) last term, so was deserving of this first Group 2 success, and his trainer reported him on target for another crack at the latter contest on August 9th.

The Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on Arc weekend would be the obvious autumn target for him.