Miss Amulet out to continue stunning rise at Breeders’ Cup

Miss Amulet, the bargain filly that went through the sales ring for a thousand euro as a foal, is on target for a fairytale Breeders’ Cup success in Keeneland on Saturday.

Ken Condon’s star two-year-old has already beaten the odds to be one of the unlikely success stories of 2020.

However US racing’s self-styled ‘World Championships’ could put a perfect seal on her campaign.

Miss Amulet takes her chance in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies race on turf for which she is a 10-1 in some betting lists.

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That’s on the back of a prolific seven-race campaign that has seen her win three times including the Group Two Lowther Stakes at York in August.

Afterwards she was bought to race in the colours of Doreen Tabor, wife of the Coolmore partner, Michael Tabor.

Miss Amulet subsequently failed by only half a length at the highest level in the Cheveley Park Stakes in Newmarket.

The daughter of Sire Prancealot has been one of a talented group of relatively cheap two-year-old runners that Condon has excelled with this season.

It also includes the colt Laws of Indices, an €8,000 purchase as a yearling that landed the Group Two Railway Stakes at the Curragh at odds of 66-1 in July.

He is finished for the year but Miss Amulet flew to the US last week as part of a strong Irish team for US racing’s $31 million showpiece fixture that starts on Friday.

Coolmore’s No 1 jockey Ryan Moore rode Miss Amulet in the Cheveley Park but is committed to Aidan O’Brien’s runner Mother Earth in the juvenile fillies event.

Instead Julien Leparoux, the 37-year-old Frenchman who is one of America’s most successful jockeys, and a seven-time Breeders’ Cup winner, has been booked for the Condon runner.

“I spoke to Michael Tabor on Friday and he suggest Julien Leparoux. He rides a lot at Keeneland and has ridden plenty of Breeders’ Cup winners. A bit of local knowledge will do no harm,” Condon said on Monday.

The popular Curragh trainer’s only previous Breeders’ Cup runner was Trais Flours who ran out of the money in last year’s Mile at Santa Anita in California.

Ground conditions won't be as quick at the Kentucky track this week where Miss Amulet will race beyond six furlongs for the first time.

“I’m hopeful she can get the mile. Up to now she has been very quick from the gate but you’d still be riding her with a degree of restraint and patience.

“Billy [Lee] and Ryan were happy to say she’d stay seven here. So hopefully there must be a chance she’ll get the mile around a tight circuit and around two bends.

“Certainly it’s worth taking a chance. She has been very good and consistent up to now and she will enjoy the level track,” Condon added.

The trainer’s international ambitions could also extend into December in Hong Kong if a warm-up race at Dundalk in a fortnight goes well for Romanised.

Condon’s 2018 Irish 2,000 Guineas winner, also successful at Group One level in last year’s Prix Jacques Le Marois, is set to line up in a conditions event on the all-weather with a view to a final career start in the Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin.

“He’s going to run this day two weeks at Dundalk in a conditions race that the authorities have kindly put on the calendar.

“If that goes well he will go for the Hong Kong Mile which is his last big target,” the trainer said.

Tuesday’s home action is a National Hunt card at Fairyhouse where Gavin Cromwell will hope Gabynako can build on a promising first start over hurdles at Punchestown last month.

The £130,000 purchase off the point-to-point fields was just half a length off Eskylane despite some jumping errors and looks a leading player in a maiden hurdle.