Horse racing-Ex-balloon worker buoyed up for Tiffany's Breeders' Cup swansong

LONDON, Oct 28 : British retiree David Bright has no stud farm or royal title, but a small stake he bought in a syndicate-owned mare named Tiffany has earned him a trip to Kentucky for this week's $5 million Breeders' Cup Turf.

Horse racing's biggest prizes are often the preserve of sheikhs, royalty and titans of industry, but Bright found another way into the sport of kings through a syndicate that sold 1,000 shares in Tiffany for about £500 ($664) each.

Bright, who used to work with hot air balloons, will visit breeding farms and bourbon distilleries before arriving at Keeneland to watch Tiffany line up against some of the world's best turf horses for the last time on Saturday.

"I get hyper anxious and I won’t sleep the night before," Bright told Reuters. "I'll be fidgeting like no one's business waiting for it to happen, I can’t look at the horses racing, I can’t watch it at all."

Bright has seen Tiffany run five times, including when she won her first Group 1, the Grosser Preis von Berlin at Hoppegarten in Germany. 

MOTHERHOOD ON THE CARDS 

The 1-1/2 mile Breeders' Cup Turf is particularly poignant for Bright because it will be Tiffany's last race. She is due to be sold as a broodmare at the end of November at Tattersalls where the hope is she will fetch more than £1 million.

Elite Racing Club's former stable star Marsha, who finished sixth in the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint in 2017, made over £6 million ($8 million) when she was sold, a European record. 

"It's got to be a once-in-a-lifetime because I don't know whether we would have another horse capable of going to a Breeders' Cup," Bright said. 

Trainer Mark Prescott said the mare had "little to lose and a lot to gain," in Keeneland and that winning the race would be