Tripping the light fantastic in Hong Kong

Fantastic Light and Frankie Dettori clinched racing’s world championship, the Emirates World Series, when they swooped to conquer in the £628,000 Hong Kong Cup at the last trans-global meeting of the year on Sunday 17 December.

Fantastic Light’s victory romp puts him on top of the World Series pile with 24 points, controversially ahead of Giant’s Causeway, Dubai Millennium, Montjeu and Kalanisi.

Although it is highly debatable whether Fantastic Light is the best of the bunch, the horsehas been on the boil since winning the Dubai Sheema Classic in March and has run in five different countries. He is just the international campaigner the World Series was designed to attract.

Dettori delighted the Hong Kong throng with two flying dismounts, the first in the winners’ enclosure and the second when he rode Fantastic Light down the course to the presentation ceremony.

He said: “He jumped well and held a good second place. The pace was even and I just got him into gear in the straight. There were a lot of cameras and screaming and he lost concentration in the last 100 yards so I had to gather him up and he stayed on again.”

Referring to the Newmarket plane crash in which he nearly lost his life in June, Dettori added: “The year 2000 has been up and down for me but it has ended on a good note.”