Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hollie’s Mighty chance
IT’S all about the start as Hollie Doyle bids for another slice of racing history aboard Mighty Gurkha at the Breeders’ Cup tonight.
Doyle (below) bids to cap a stellar 2020 with victory on the Archie Watson-trained two-year-old in the fiveand-a-half-furlong Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint as the big-money two-day fixture gets underway at Keeneland, Kentucky. And the 24-year-old, bidding bid to join jo Julie Krone and Rosie Napravnik a as the th third female jockey jk to score at the self-titled ‘World Championships’ of horseracing, knows the opening strides of the race will decide her fate.
“The gate speed they have out here is crazy,” said Doyle, who last month added a first Group 1 to her burgeoning CV when the Watson-trained Glen Shiel captured the QIPCO British Champions Sprint at Ascot.
“They don’t even ask them to jump — they just do it naturally. That’s what they’re trained to do.”
Mighty Gurkha, sharpened up by the application of blinkers and berthed in the favoured stall one, can be backed at 20-1 for the Grade 2 test, for which Golden Pal heads the market at 7-4.
But Doyle added: “I rode him out yesterday and today and just got to know the track.
“He’s in good form and has taken it in really well.
“We couldn’t be happier with him.”
RYAN GIGGS rescued Manchester r United from a second successive defeat at Parkhead with a late equaliser r against Celtic in the Champions League, while Arsenal failed tto iimpress as they were held to a goalless draw at home against Turkish side Fenerbahce - who they had thrashed 5-2 just two weeks earlier.