A brilliant pre-race plan and a faultless execution by Brett Prebble saw Thunder Fantasy steal the Hong Kong Jockey Club Community Trophy (2,200m) yesterday and set the John Size-trained four-year-old up to become the next big stayer in town.
Coming back from defeat behind stablemate Luger in the Derby to a Class Two handicap, Thunder Fantasy was heavily backed to turn things around, and Size and Prebble had a plan.
"I thought they might go a better gallop than they did, but they went slow. John had said to me before the race that I had a very fit horse who wouldn't quicken if he sat behind a slow speed, but he would stay," Prebble said. "He said don't be afraid to increase the tempo early if they went too slow, so I had it in mind. It suited me anyway because Thunder Fantasy, even though he is a stayer, hasn't learned to take a chill midrace. He gets his head down low and wants to wrestle you and overdo things so rather than fight him I was happy to go around them."
With little more than half the race completed, Prebble slipped Thunder Fantasy more rein after the leaders had put in two very slow sections and he went around them to be more than two lengths clear with 800m to run.
In doing so, he left runner-up Take To The Limit (Ben So Tik-hung) strung up on the rail behind the leaders, but he said that had not been the intention.
"I didn't think the two leaders would let me get around them so easily to be honest but they did and I just wanted to get my horse's action flowing," Prebble said.
"I wasn't trying to be that tactical, leaving him boxed up behind them, it was more about getting my horse going right. It was a good win with the weight but I think there's more to come with him when he learns to relax more."
It was a winning move, though, with Thunder Fantasy turning in well clear then holding off the finish of Take To The Limit, to whom he conceded 19 pounds and that was not lost on Size.
"He had every excuse to be run down giving so much weight to the second horse but in a distance race, the distance is probably the more decisive factor and he does stay," Size said.
"He was placed in a Victoria Derby over 2,500m as an early three-year-old, so that tells you he can stay, and he is uncomplicated to the point where all he needs is suitable races. He's won the Group One against his own age at an unsuitable trip, he has beaten all the four-year-olds except Luger, so coming back to a handicap I thought he had to run well getting out to a longer trip."
The future for Thunder Fantasy looks etched in stone now, though, with the four-year-old looking towards the Queen Mother Memorial Cup and the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup, both at 2,400m, as his obvious upcoming targets.
It is hard to escape comparisons between Thunder Fantasy and stablemate Khaya, who also ran well clear at the top of the straight in the same race last year but was just run down after the pace had been torrid. Khaya has since placed in a Hong Kong Vase.
"Thunder Fantasy has some quality about him but his win rate is probably never going to reflect that. He won one race in Australia, now he's won two here and it's always going to be the case for a horse like him," Size said.
"It's a positive that, for a staying horse, he does have that tactical ability to get forward in his races, but he is very one-paced and, with the programme in Hong Kong, he is going to get very few real opportunities at his high rating to show what he can do."