Tiffany set for international farewell after sparkling in Kentucky

Tiffany looks set to round off her racing career at either the Breeders’ Cup or in Japan after she backed up her belated Group One breakthrough in Germany last month with victory in the Kentucky Turf Cup Invitational Stakes on Saturday.

Sir Mark Prescott’s star mare had become something of a perennial bridesmaid, filling the runner-up spot in five consecutive races, with three of those coming in top-level events on German soil.

But having finally secured an elusive success in the Grosser Preis von Berlin in early August, the Elite Racing-owned six-year-old travelled to America for a Grade Two assignment at Kentucky Downs, with regular partner Luke Morris crossing the Atlantic for the ride.

Tiffany faced eight rivals including a second British raider in Ed Walker’s Fort George, as well as the Willie Mullins-trained Breeders’ Cup Turf hero of last year, Ethical Diamond.

The European trio came to the fore in the closing stages of the mile-and-a-half contest and it was Prescott’s charge who finished best to prevail by a length and three-quarters, with Ethical Diamond second and Fort George third.

Prescott told the Press Association: “It’s strange really as at the age of six, and after a whole series of seconds, you rather felt she might be beginning to be on the skids, but for some extraordinary reason she seems to be on the up and we’re all very grateful.

“For the breeders, it was very disappointing when she didn’t make her reserve at the December sales last year, and she’s won more than her reserve this year, which doesn’t often happen, does it?

“We’re very lucky and very grateful and we thought Luke gave her a fantastic ride.”

Tiffany looks set for one final outing before going through the Tattersalls sales ring again later in the year, but whether that is in America or Japan remains undecided.

“I don’t know, I think a lot will depend on how she is when she gets back, because we made a decision not to leave her there,” Prescott added.

“She’s in a fortunate position whereby she gets into both the Breeders’ Cup and the Japan Cup, and it’s a question of looking at the pros and cons of both. The main thing is to see how she is.

“We intend to run in the Breeders’ Cup or the Japan Cup, but we haven’t worked out the logistics of either. I believe the December sale is immediately after the Japan race, so we’ll work out the timings and everything else.

“I’m rather a believer in leaving these things to worry about when they come – and they don’t often come!”

There was also European interest in the Grade Two Nashville Derby, with Hugo Palmer’s Glacius faring best of the raiding party in second behind Miguel Clement’s clear-cut winner Caroline St. Beat.