Make A Challenge

A month on from recording a breakthrough Group 1 success, Joe Doyle, the rider who will forever be associated with multiple stakes-winner Make A Challenge (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), is back on familiar shores. However, Doyle has no plans on resuming his riding career in Britain or Ireland, where the 27-year-old has enjoyed successful spells respectively. No, Doyle is merely keeping his eye in before returning for New Zealand, where he has a 1,000 Guineas prospect to look forward to next season, by riding at the breeze-ups. It's not surprising...

One of the main attractions of the Goffs Autumn Horses In Training Sale on Tuesday is Gustavus Weston (Ire) (Equiano {Fr}), the four-time winner whose career highlight came when he landed the G2 Greenlands S. at the Curragh last year.  On that occasion, Joe Murphy's charge was chased home by Make A Challenge (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), a 10-time winner for Denis Hogan, who is also in the sale.  Hogan said of his eight-strong draft, "We've a nice draft of horses going to Goffs. We'll be sorry to see some...

Make a Challenge (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) will make his next appearance in the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye Oct. 4. The winner of four of six starts this season, including a pair of Irish listed stakes in August, the gelding finished fifth--beaten two lengths--in his most recent start in the Curragh's G1 Flying Five S. Sept. 13. "We were very happy with the horse," said Hogan. "He raced out on his own for most of the race and the drying ground probably didn't help, but I think the main thing...

The 2020 season had all the ingredients to be a potentially ground-breaking one for trainer Denis Hogan before a COVID spanner was thrown in the works in the spring. With a semblance of normality back in day-to-day lives, Hogan's season is now starting to deliver what it originally promised it might with the trainer basking in the glow of having the two highest- rated sprinters in Ireland under his care at his Tipperary stables. "It's going brilliantly at the moment and we have a fantastic bunch of horses but it...