THERE IS few finer sights in racing than the fastest five-furlong sprinters flying down the straight of one of the top tracks in hot pursuit of a Group 1 prize.

When you’ve got the reigning champ and one of the quickest speedsters in history lining up it’s certainly not a race to be missed.

So there should be no blinking at around 3.15pm on Friday when Battaash will attempt to defend his Nunthorpe Stakes crown.

Sheikh Hamden’s lightning-fast sprinter has been among the best over the minimum distance ever since he blitzed Group 1 winners Marsha and Profitable in the Prix De L’Abbaye the best part of three years ago.

Last year, having twice been beaten when fancied for the Nunthorpe, Battaash put any suggestion of a dislike of York to bed when scorching home by a smidgen short of four lengths.

His true coming of age had taken a little longer than most horses but, from the moment he crossed the line, there was no doubt it had arrived for Charlie Hills’ stable star.

Given he has long-since been separated with his equipment needed to book his place at stud, he has the chance to become one of THE great sprinters.

That’s why it’s so good that speedy American juvenile Golden Pal – around third favourite behind odds-on Battaash in the Nunthorpe ante-post betting – is staying in the US.

It’s not to clear the way for Battaash to join the likes of Macca’s Angel and Borderlescott as dual winners of this historic five-furlongs Group 1. We all want to see the best horses taking each other on in the top races.

The problem with Golden Pal or any other two-year-old thrown into the Nunthorpe is that they would be getting 24lbs from their older rivals.

The weight-for-age scale has been developed over many years but how can it be right to even up abailities to such an extent in one of the highlights of the British Flat racing calendar?

It would be like giving a 16-year-old a 20-yard head start in the Olympic 100m and all clapping like demented seals when he holds on by a whisker from Usain Bolt.

It isn’t even as if Golden Pal is some sort of equine child prodigy. Wesley Ward’s youngster was beaten into second when sent off favourite for his debut at Gulfstream Park in America.

His neck second behind The Lir Jet in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot was the performance of a good two-year-old but, given the way the form of that race has worked out, he is unlikely to be any sort of superstar.

To win an all-aged Group 1 like the Nunthorpe as a juvenile you would imagine would take one the greats. None of it.

Acapulco, also trained by Ward, was the most recent juvenile to come close in the Nunthorpe when runner-up behind Mecca’s Angel five years ago having landed the Queen Mary at Royal Ascot.

Such is the weight advantage she was sent off favourite that day and it proved to be about as it good as it got for Acapulco as subsequent wins in America and Ireland came at Listed level.

It was a similar story for the first horse to win the Nunthorpe as a two-year-old. Lyric Fantasy was a ferociously-fast filly in the summer of 1992 when winning the Queen Mary and Newbury’s Super Sprint before etching her name into the record books at York.

But, even with light-weight South African jockey Michael Roberts putting up a pound over-weight, she was still getting a whopping 26lbs from half-length runner-up Mr Brooks.

The following season she finished midfield in the 1000 Guineas, landed a fillies’ Listed prize, was stuffed in the King’s Stand before trailing in last of 11 in her Nunthorpe defence.

Kingsgate Native, the other juvenile winner of York’s great sprint, at least added another Group 1 to his haul in what is now the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot, but he will come a long way down the list when the order of sprinting greats is being discussed.

There are more than enough Group races for juveniles without giving them such a weight advantage to entice them into taking on the established stars.

It’s similar, but to a lesser extent, with fillies.

Kurious and Que Amoro will get a 3lbs sex allowance if they take on Battaash on Friday.

It was the same advantage Marsha, Mecca’s Angel, Jwala, Ortensia and Margot Did all had. That’s six of the last nine winners and, although most would surely have won anyway, it seems a ridiculous way to go on.

Fillies and mares have never been bettered catered for with a veritable feast of races restricted to female horses.

It’s just as pronounced in the Arc de Triomphe. An eyebrow-raising seven of the last nine winners of France’s great end-of-season decider over 1m4f were fillies.

The winner in 2011, Danedream, went on to beat Nathaniel a nose in the King George at Ascot the following summer getting the 3lbs sex allowance.

It’s easy to argue Nathaniel was the best horse in the race and even third-placed St Nicholas Abbey would have finished ahead of Danedream on accepted handicapping weight calculations.

Surely Group 1 races should be to find out which is the best of the best. It’s where champions are made.

It should be a level playing field, not some mathematics equation to decipher who really is the best.

Luckily Battaash won’t have the scales tipped against him too much this week but surely it is time to review these weighty issues.