Racing: Snow Fairy chills Prebble's big payday

It took an astonished jockey Brett Prebble to sum it up best.

And he wasn't even on Snow Fairy, the winner of Sunday's HK$20 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup.

The locally based Australian rider had the winning rider's percentage already spent from Hong Kong's richest race when he pressed the button on runner-up Irian at the 350m at Sha Tin.

"There wasn't a horse in the world that could have run my horse down from that point," said Prebble.

But there was - perhaps just one and although Prebble couldn't see her, she was winding up with one of the great finishes you get to see only a few times in your life.

Snow Fairy was nicknamed Queen Of The Orient when she won the QEII Commemorative Cup in Japan in mid-November and she proved the wisdom of that title in this race.

The English and Irish Oaks winner would have been impressive in coming from second last on the home bend if there had been pace on in the race.

But there wasn't - most of the beaten jockeys complained about the pedestrian tempo of the Cup, which always makes it difficult for back runners. Not one winner on the rest of the day came from further back than fourth on the home bend.

Snow Fairy was so far off the speed when the leaders sprinted on the corner that she was almost out of sight.

Winning rider Ryan Moore was in Brett Prebble's camp. "At the top of the bend I thought I had no chance. But fortunately they just came back to me. She's a machine really. She has such a brilliant turn of foot. She did what we thought she could, and she surpassed it."

That was an eloquent summing up of the performance of a filly who has now added Hong Kong's premier race to a collection of group one victories gathered in four countries.

"She's not the biggest filly in the world but she's got the biggest heart," said trainer Ed Dunlop.

"Hopefully, she'll come back for this race next year because she's going to stay in training as a 4-year-old."

Which in itself is astonishing. With her record, Snow Fairy is one of the world's most valuable broodmares.

But the racing world is the winner. What we all saw on Sunday is not an everyday happening.

Snow Fairy was the only horse on the programme to break 22 seconds for the last 200m. To do that at the end of 2000m is remarkable.

She has emerged as one of the finest of her age and sex in an era of great fillies worldwide, and it seems incredible now that the €1800 ($3168) buyback purchase as a yearling had to be supplemented for her first group one outing because she hadn't even been entered in the Oaks.

Asked about that omission, Patrick Cooper, racing manager to Snow Fairy's owners, Anemoine Ltd, joked: "Perhaps we didn't know what we were doing."

What is now well established as one of the world's greatest international racedays started well when Mastery won the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase (2400m).

This was an Italian, Frankie Dettori, riding an English-bred for an Arab trainer, Saeed bin Suroor.

South Africa's J J The Jet Plane gave the raceday an added international flavour, winning the Cathay Pacific Sprint from Singapore's best sprinter Rocket Man and Hong Kong idol Sacred Kingdom.

Mike Dillon flew to Hong Kong courtesy of Cathay Pacific