Colin Keane had a perfect end to a championship-winning season in Ireland when notching a century of winners in his final ride of the campaign at the Curragh on Monday.
Keane flies out to Keeneland tomorrow to ride Siskin in Saturday’s Breeders Cup Mile, the same day as the 2020 Irish flat season ends at Naas.
Having got the better of his long-time rival Shane Foley for the jockeys' championship, Keane needed one more winner to reach 100 at the Curragh.
He left it to the last race on the card but the 11-4 favourite Pretty Boy Floyd secured the century for the rider who won his first championship in 2017.
It completed a remarkable championship comeback for Keane whose chance of winning the title looked to have gone during the summer.
He forfeited two weeks due to coronavirus restrictions in order to ride Siskin in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.
As a result Foley stretched his lead to 20 winners at one point in August but a prolific September saw Keane remorselessly close the gap.
“It was nice to get the 100 up on my last ride. I’m delighted – to win the title once is what you dream of growing up so to get a second one, when it didn’t look likely for such a long time, is great,” Keane said.
“Shane Foley is a good friend of mine and would have been a very deserving winner of it. September was probably the real game changer as I rode 26 winners that month. That really helped,” he added.
Having secured a first classic for both Keane and trainer Ger Lyons in last June's Irish 2,000 Guineas, Siskin will try to give both men a first Breeders Cup victory in what will be the colt's last start before going to stud.
Keane and Lyons also won the Irish Oaks with Even So in July.
