Hong Kong Vase

(Group 1)

AIDAN O’Brien had sent eight horses to Hong Kong since 2001 and not one had been placed. No three-year-old colt had ever won the Vase. Ireland hadn’t won at the meeting in 11 years. The negatives spun around Sha Tin all week. Highland Reel was oblivious. Pat Keating sounded almost confident.

On Friday the absent O’Brien’s travelling head lad had uttered an upbeat couple of lines: “He’s in very good form, and I’ve been happy with the way he’s been all week.” That after the Galileo colt’s final stretch out, a zestful breeze on the dirt track that flew under the radar of many - even the Sha Tin clockers high up in the grandstand. No time was returned. On Saturday it was a succinct “he’s never been better.”

Someone somewhere got the message. Five minutes before the off Highland Reel’s Hong Kong Vase odds displayed on the racecourse’s giant Diamond Vision screen as 6.7 for a HK$1 stake. When the field of 13 jumped from the stalls those odds had fallen to 4.3, lit up in green on-screen to denote a significant enough flow of money into the win pool.

The race itself was muddling. Highland Reel was sharp from the gate. Ryan Moore allowed the colt to stride to the lead and, once there, slowed the tempo.

The dawdling wasn’t to Tommy Berry’s liking and the Australian rider swept around the field on Harbour Master to take it up with six furlongs remaining, but having grasped the advantage he opted for caution rather than throttle-out assault. Cirrus Des Aigles raced second and Moore settled Highland Reel a stalking third.

“I was always happy to let him bowl along at his own pace and if someone else wanted to lead that was fine,” said Moore immediately afterwards. “He was going quite nicely down the back then Harbour Master wanted to get on with it and I had to change the plan a little bit.”

With the front pair tiring on the home turn, Moore moved his mount three wide to challenge. Wider still, Flintshire loomed under Vincent Cheminaud and the 2014 winner looked set for success when hitting the front with a furlong and a half to go.

However, his run petered as Moore, low in the crouch and driving hard, found a willing responder in Highland Reel. The Ballydoyle representative ran home a length and a half clear of the André Fabre-trained second. Dariyan was a further length and a half third for trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre. The closers failed to land a blow.

Moore paid tribute to Highland Reel’s hardened constitution, a result of previous excursions this year to North America and Australia that yielded a win in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes and third in the Group 1 Cox Plate.

“He did it all very easily today, he’s turned into a good horse,” he said. “The horse has improved immensely since the start of the year. When Flintshire came by me I thought I was in trouble but as soon as that horse folded a little bit he dug in.”

The win was the first for Ireland at Hong Kong’s showcase event since Alexander Goldrun won the Hong Kong Cup in 2004.