Everyone associated with the brilliant BAAEED will be feeling under a degree of pressure when his unbeaten record is put on the line for an eleventh and final time on Saturday, in the Champion Stakes at Ascot, the race in which Frankel ended a similarly flawless career so memorably ten years ago, but luckily the man in the saddle doesn’t get nervous.

Jim Crowley does not underestimate the responsibility he has to the horse, or indeed the task ahead, but he is looking forward to it and plans to enjoy the ride, just as he did when Baaeed confirmed himself champion miler as a three-year-old in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (sponsored by QIPCO) – one of Crowley’s three winners from four rides on last year’s card.

Crowley, who has ridden Baaeed for William Haggas and Sheikha Hissa on all but the first two of his ten starts and has already enjoyed six Group 1 wins on him, said: “I don’t really get nervous. I’ll get excited before the race, which is only natural, but once you are on him and away you just forget about everything.

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