Leading rider Hollie Doyle is set to make her Breeder's Cup debut this weekend and the female jockey is looking to land her first winner at the meeting that will top off another superb season.
After another superb year on the track the 24 year old broke her own record of winners throughout the calendar year taking her total of 116 last term and blowing it out of the water this year.
She rode her first Group winner on the Ed Vaughan trained Dame Malliot in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket and after that she also went on to land her first Royal Ascot winner aboard the Alan King-trained Scarlet Dragon in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes.
To top things off, on British Champions Day she landed a superb double which included her landing her first ever Group One race of her career on board Glen Shiel in the British Champion Sprint Stakes.
That also saw her retained trainer Archie Watson land his first black type event in his career and the pair are hoping for more glory with the Mighty Gurkha in the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Mighty Gurkha (Sepoy) is not for passing under Adam McNamara in the Sirenia Stakes at @kemptonparkrace.
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) September 5, 2020
Group 3 success in both Ireland and England inside the last month for trainer @Archie_Watson 👏 pic.twitter.com/tTxjrdQlRu
The two year old landed a hot Group Three at Kempton two starts ago, but will have to be better than his latest outing at Newmarket and the quick ground at Keeneland should help his cause.
(Credit ATR) Doyle – who arrived in Kentucky on Wednesday – is hopeful of a good account and said: “The horse is in top form – he’s very relaxed and has taken everything in his stride.
“The track is riding excellent. At the moment it’s probably good, good to firm ground, and I think they are going to put a bit more water on it – which would be ideal for us.
“He’s settled right in, he hasn’t left a drop of food.”Doyle is also confident Keeneland’s configuration will not prove a hindrance to the chance of Mighty Gurkha.
She added: “He ran on debut at Lingfield and handled the turn very well.
“He’s quite agile – he’s done a lot of growing in a short space of time, so he has grown a lot, but I think he’ll be fine.”