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Richard Fahey is heading into Sunday’s (8 December) HK$40 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) at Sha Tin with high hopes Spirit Dancer can derail Romantic Warrior’s hat-trick bid.
Fahey is hunting for a third marquee success with Spirit Dancer this year after two lucrative trips to the Middle East. The seven-year-old's customary late flourish saw him secure the G2 Neom Turf Cup (2100m) in February and land a second G2 Bahrain International Trophy (2000m) last month.
While both of those efforts will need improving on to dethrone the Hong Kong Cup's spectacular dual winner Romantic Warrior and make him the first Brit to win the race since Snow Fairy in 2010, Fahey is confident his horse has never been in better shape.
"I genuinely thought his last run in Bahrain was the best of his life," he said. "He looked like winning really well three furlongs out and I think it's a fair assessment to say the eventual second got first run on him, so he did well to run him down in the end.
"In the last 100 yards, he finished off very well. The race was run four and a half seconds faster than last year and there's no reason why it should have been as it was over the same ground and trip. I just thought it was a huge performance."
Spirit Dancer has been luckless on his only two previous tries at the highest level in Dubai, having finished fourth in the Jebel Hatta (1800m) in January and 11th in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic (2410m) in March. However, there was a legitimate excuse for the latter.
Fahey said: "He stumbled coming out of the gates in Dubai and came back quite sore. We x-rayed him and we were a bit shocked to see the extent of the damage. Everything has been fine since and he hasn't taken a lame step."
Among those eagerly watching Spirit Dancer on Sunday will be his part-owner and legendary football manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who will be hoping regular rider Oisin Orr can successfully navigate stall 10.
Fellow British contender The Foxes has an even wider stall to negate in 11, but he showed he had the talent to be competitive at this level when an easy winner of the Listed Churchill Stakes (2038m) at Newcastle last month.
That victory over HK$24 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) runner Dubai Honour represented a return to his best form, which includes an exciting win in the G2 Dante Stakes (2051m) as a three-year-old.
Anna Lisa Balding, assistant to her husband Andrew, is hoping for a similarly polished performance from The Foxes on Sunday, when he will bid for a G1 breakthrough.
She said: "He was impressive when he won the Dante and he should have won the Belmont Derby, he finished second after coming from a mile back. Hopefully on Sunday he'll show us what he's really like. He looks really well."
The Foxes was found to have sustained an injury after finishing last to Spirit Dancer in the Neom Turf Cup in February, but has pleased connections with his trackwork in the last week.
Balding said: "He only ran a few weeks ago, so he's fit. He's quite a straightforward horse to travel. He's in good form."
