Junko won the slowest-ever Group One Longines Hong Kong Vase (2,400m) at Sha Tin on Sunday when Andre Fabre and Maxime Guyon, the trainer and rider who combined with Flintshire in 2014, also contributed to the end of France’s nine-year wait for its 15th victory at the city’s marquee meeting.

Remarkably, Junko’s one-length defeat of Japanese stayer Zeffiro – the Land of the Rising Sun’s favoured runner, $2.3 market leader Lebensstil, finished last – means that Fabre has trained the winners of the three most sluggish Hong Kong Vases in history.

Junko stopped the Longines-branded clock at 2:30.12, two one-hundredths of a second slower than the time in which Borgia won under Olivier Peslier for Fabre in 1999, while Flintshire clocked 2:29.83 in 2014.

Zac Purton, aboard $28 roughie La City Blanche, led the Hong Kong Vase field to its halfway point, covering the opening 1,200m in 1:18.44 – 2.89 seconds slower than the standard time for the infrequently run 2,400m trip, which equates to about 17 lengths.

Even when Ryan Moore, who weighed out at 117 pounds, moved $3.4 second favourite Warm Heart to the front, the Hong Kong Vase tempo did not crank up right away, with the fourth 400m sectional time more than eight-tenths of a second outside the class benchmark.

Junko, who settled at the rear of the Hong Kong Vase field after he stumbled out of the gates, was fifth at the top of the home straight, and his race-best final 400m split of 23.27 seconds was sufficient for him to overtake Warm Heart, La City Blanche, Five G Patch and the desperately disappointing Lebensstil.

Guyon, who reunited with Junko after he missed the four-year-old Intello gelding’s Group One Grosser Preis von Bayern (2,400m) triumph at Munich five weeks ago, posted his second Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) success on his 11th ride at the meeting.

“I’m really happy because it was time to win this race again. Nine years ago, it was Flintshire,” Guyon said. “We didn’t know before the race if Junko would like this ground because, normally, he prefers soft ground, but the ground in Hong Kong was good.

“He’s very relaxed, and of course, the pace was not fast, but the most important thing with the horse is if he’s breathing really well and everything is OK.

“We had a good race. There weren’t a lot of runners, so I wasn’t too far back after the last turn. He has a good turn of foot, and he ran to the winning post.

“Everybody knows Andre Fabre. He’s the best trainer. He has done a really good job with this horse because he has won a second Group One with this horse. He just won a Group One in Germany, then he comes to Hong Kong for a win. It’s not easy to do that.”

Punters brown-lamped Junko in the final two minutes of Hong Kong Vase betting – $13 into $5.55 – and Fabre told reporters after the race that his third win in the event had not surprised him.

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“We’re very delighted, but it was expected because he’s been improving race after race now that I run him further,” said Fabre, who has saddled three of the 11 Vase and 15 HKIR winners for France.

Junko contested this year’s Group One Dubai Turf (1,800m) – he finished sixth behind Lord North – and Fabre intends to campaign the Hong Kong Vase hero in the United Arab Emirates before racing in Europe.

“It is the plan. Now we’ll probably take him to Dubai, and then France and England for Group Ones where he’ll take his chance,” Fabre said.