“IT’S the perfect finale to my five years in Japan,” commented an elated Mick Buckley in the immediate aftermath of the Group 1 NHK Mile at Tokyo last Sunday. “I could hardly have scripted a better going away party.”

Clarity Sky, who had just triumphed over 17 of his peers in Japan’s premier three-year-old mile race, was bred by the Irish-owned Paca Paca Farm which Buckley has managed for the last five years. However, the call of the green and a desire to start his own bloodstock venture will bring the Listowel-man back to the Emerald Isle in mid-summer.