RECORD-BREAKING mare Branston Abby is set to bid for an elusive first Group victory in the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket tomorrow.
The durable performer is being primed for the seven furlong contest and could stay at the track to contest the Listed Bentinck Stakes on Saturday.
Branston Abby became the most prolific winner among British-trained fillies and mares since the war when she landed her 23rd success in a Listed race in Munich on Sunday.
But trainer Mark Johnston's new target is to break the Group race jinx, either before the end of the season or next year when she will stay in training.
"She will probably run in the Challenge Stakes and we wouldn't be doing anything unusual if we ran her again on Saturday," Johnston said yesterday.
"She has been desperately unlucky not to win a Group race. The closest she came was when she was beaten two short heads in the Diadem Stakes. She was in front 10 yards past the line."
Michael Roberts will continue his association with Branston Abby and will be in line for a number of other Johnston rides while Jason Weaver serves a nine-day suspension.
Crack American three-year-old, Skip Away, who handed Cigar a second defeat in his last three outings, is unlikely to be supplemented for the Breeders' Cup Classic on October 26th according to jockey Shane Sellers. The supplementary fee costs a whopping $480,000. Skip Away's trainer, former FBI agent Sonny Hine, is currently hospitalised.
