John Quinn is putting the finishing touches to Safe Voyage's preparation ahead of a tilt at the Breeders' Cup Mile at Keeneland on November 7.
The North Yorkshire-trained seven-year-old has built a reputation as being one of the best seven-furlong performers in the country over the past couple of seasons, and is reported to be in top form for the intended trip to Kentucky.
After coming to prominence with an eye-catching victory in handicap company at the Galway Festival in 2018, the son of Fast Company won three races last year and has repeated the feat this term after landing Epsom's Listed Surrey Stakes, the Group Two Sky Bet City Of York Stakes and the Group Two Clipper Logistics Boomerang Stakes at Leopardstown over a mile in September.
He was last seen running a fine third back at his favoured distance behind One Master and Earthlight in the Group One Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp, a performance that gave Quinn plenty of encouragement with a return to the mile in mind.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, the trainer said: "It's very exciting. He worked yesterday morning and he'll do a little bit of work on Friday, before his last piece of work on Tuesday then travel late next week.
"He's been to a lot of the big gigs this year, including Ireland and then France, so we thought if we went to Ascot it might not be fair if we wanted to travel to America, so we purposefully missed that. Any year you'd love to have a runner in the QEII but we missed that hoping that everything goes well and that we end up in Kentucky. That's where we want to be."
While US-trained horses have dominated the Breeders' Cup mile in the last decade, it is traditionally one of the races in which European raiders do extremely well, including Goldikova's three straight wins (2009-2011) and Expert Eye taking top spot for Sir Michael Stoute two years ago.
And while the two-turn mile at Keeneland could potentially prove alien to most runners from the UK, Quinn feels that particular set-up will hold no fears for his stable star, and may ultimately prove to be ideal.
He said: "He's very neat and the mile around two bends will be right up his alley. He's very good everywhere but he's been good left-handed at York and Leopardstown so we thought he has enough speed, while he'll get the mile well.
"The ground was marginal [quick side of good] when he won at Leopardstown and he was absolutely phenomenal. It was soft at York where he revelled in it and it was soft again at Longchamp where he might have got up in another five or six strides.
"The finishing line is where the finishing line is so we've no axe to grind but he ran another super race and the form is strong."
