GOOD news – you won’t have to stay up late to watch the Breeders’ Cup next Saturday.

This year’s meeting takes place in Keeneland, which is on eastern time, and the Americans don’t put their clocks back for another week, so the time difference will only be four hours next Saturday.

As a result, the first of nine Grade 1 races on Saturday will be on our screens at 3.50pm, a full 20 minutes before Gordon Elliott wins the bumper at Down Royal!

And you needn’t worry about staying awake until after midnight to watch Flightline romp home in the Classic. That race is due to start at 9.40pm Irish time.

Keeneland in the fall can be wet (as it was in 2015 when Tepin and Found won) but the long-range weather forecast looks pretty good at the moment. One forecasting service is predicting a 66% chance of rain on Saturday, so it is advisable to keep an eye on conditions as the week develops.

Early speed

A bit of rain will hold no fears for Highfield Princess in the Turf Sprint. The John Quinn-trained mare is proven on all ground, unlike her main rival Golden Pal. Both horses have plenty of early speed, so the draw could be crucial.

Nashwa has had a long season but looks to hold an outstanding chance in the Filly & Mare Turf. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, and ridden by Hollie Doyle, the Frankel filly has a rare turn of foot and is well-suited by fast ground, so it is to her credit that she almost overcame a horrible draw and horrible ground in the Prix de l’Opera on Arc day, when mugged on the line by the unconsidered Place Du Carrousel.

Joseph O’Brien’s Above The Curve was only a short-head behind that day and she too has done little wrong this season. This should be an exciting rematch.

On to the Mile where Kinross aims to continue his winning streak for trainer Ralph Beckett and jockey Frankie Dettori. For so long considered a seven-furlong specialist, Kinross displayed plenty of versatility when comfortably landing the Sprint Stakes over six furlongs at Ascot recently. Can he now step up to an ‘easy’ mile here? You wouldn’t put it past him.

His chief threat looks to be Modern Games, the Godolphin star who first came to prominence at this meeting last year (in Del Mar) when he was mistakenly withdrawn at the start then reinstated and won comfortably.

This season the Dubawi colt won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and the Woodbine Mile, and he got close to Baaeed at Goodwood. Soft ground didn’t suit him when second to Bayside Boy at Ascot recently and he has to be hugely respected back on American soil.

Godolphin pair

Godolphin also looks to have a strong grip on the 12-furlong Turf with its two-pronged team of Rebel’s Romance and Nations Pride. The first-named is four-from-four in Europe this season, but you could argue the form of his two German Group 1 wins is nothing special.

Nations Pride is potentially more interesting. The Teofilo colt may have flopped in the Derby but that is his only blemish and his three subsequent starts in the USA have worked out well.

It’s a brave move by connections of US mare War Like Goddess to take on boys in this spot but she looked brilliant when defeating a field of males in a Grade 1 at Aqueduct recently and should be respected.

The dirt races also have plenty of attractive match-ups. In the Sprint we have the monstrous Jackie’s Warrior making his final start and hoping to show his Saratoga loss to Cody’s Wish was all wrong. The three-year-old Jack Christopher could upset them both.

One imagines that the prolific Malathaath will also be retired after the Distaff but she faces a massive test up against the awesome three-year-old filly Nest. In her favour, Malathaath is unbeaten in three starts at Keeneland.

And so we close out the evening with Flightline, officially the world’s best racehorse. Will be put up another Secretariat-like performance in the Classic or will we get a shock to match the result in 1993 when Arcangues struck for France at odds of 133/1?

Epicenter, Life Is Good and Taiba will be hoping to be the Blame to Flightline’s Zenyatta.

Bring it on.