“She’s actually leaving right now, it’s quite a sight,” relayed John Fairley last Friday as he prepared to follow his brilliant mare, Highfield Princess, to Hong Kong on her latest overseas expedition.

“I live with the horse, and I’m just watching her right now from my kitchen window make her way through six inches of snow to go and catch the plane to Hong Kong,” added Fairley from his Highfield Stables in North Yorkshire, where John Quinn trains Highfield Princess for him.

While it was a quiet farewell for Highfield Princess, she will receive a hero’s welcome if she returns a winner after Sunday’s Group One Longines Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m) at Sha Tin.

“The whole gang are getting on planes in order to support her, so we’re looking forward to it,” said Fairley in an interview facilitated by Great British Racing International.

“I haven’t been to Hong Kong for a very long time, and certainly not with a racehorse, so we’re all looking forward to it, including my grandchildren, who are only seven, 10 and 11.

“They’ve been all round the world with her. They were in France when she won her first Group One, and they’ve become the complete fan club. They really love it. My daughters, my grandchildren, the trainer and his son, everybody – we’re all coming out.”

The trip to Asia will be the latest chapter in a remarkable journey for Fairley since the former Channel 4 Racing supremo bought Highfield Princess’ dam, Pure Illusion, in foal with his now four-time Group One winner.

Unraced as a two-year-old, Highfield Princess finished eighth in a nondescript 1,400m contest on debut in June 2020 and took 27 starts to hit her straps at Group One level.

What followed was something to behold, with elite-level victories in France’s Prix Maurice de Gheest (1,300m), England’s Nunthorpe Stakes (1,000m) and Ireland’s Flying Five Stakes (1,000m) within the space of five weeks propelling the six-year-old to the top of Europe’s sprinting ranks.

There was another Group One victory last start – a deserved Prix de l’Abbaye win after three top-level placings from her previous five runs – and now Highfield Princess will attempt to become the first United Kingdom-trained horse to win a Hong Kong Sprint.

“She never raced as a two-year-old – she pulled a muscle – and she was well into her three-year-old season before she got going,” Fairley said.

“It’s a wonderful story, as far as I’m concerned, to be rated 50-something and coming eighth at Redcar to getting on a plane to go to Hong Kong, and lots of lovely things in between,” added the octogenarian.

Standing between Highfield Princess and more Group One glory is a home team spearheaded by Hong Kong’s best sprinter, Lucky Sweynesse, and reigning Sprint champion Wellington.

“In the Racing Post, there was a table saying Lucky Sweynesse is the equal fourth-top horse in training in the world at the moment, so we’re under no illusions,” Fairley said.

“But we thought she’d stand a chance. That’s the first reason for coming. Last year, she was the best sprinter in Europe, and at the beginning of October this year, she won the Abbaye brilliantly from a very bad draw. That was when we decided we wouldn’t go to the Breeders’ Cup, we’d rather go to Hong Kong.

“It’s near enough a world championship that race, I think anyway. We’re looking forward to it, but we’re not saying we’re going to win.”