Richard Fahey column ahead of Spirit Dancer's bid for glory in Hong Kong

It's all systems go with Spirit Dancer here in Hong Kong and I think deserves his rating (of 120) and I think his last run was probably his best run.

It’s the second occasion he’s won the Bahrain Trophy and it was a very fast time he recorded there, not many people having picked up on that. It was four and a half seconds faster than the year before and it was the manner in which he did it too, he travelled really well.

You need a bit of that here, you need speed and if he could run the same sort of race then he could maybe run above his odds.

They can (really thrive when racing abroad), you see him on the track here and he’s quite a laidback character and nothing really fazes him. He hasn’t let us down much in the last two years or so now so he’s been a pleasure to be with.

Everything’s there (track conditions and race set-up this weekend) for us to run a decent race, but this is his toughest assignment so we’ll see what happens.

It’s fantastic for the owners (Peter Done, Sir Alex Ferguson, Ged Mason). There’s a lot of communication especially coming up to a race like this but I think the shock to me was when they actually got to Saudi Arabia, to see them all hugging each other and lifting each other off the ground – it’s amazing what horses can do.

These are very, very successful men in their own field and the buzz they’re getting out of it all is fantastic. Some of the messages before and after the races were so nice, heart-warming for me to read.

I think as Sir Alex has got older maybe he’s mellowed out a little bit but he is thoroughly enjoying his racing, I know he’s got some decent National Hunt horses at home and they’ve been running well, but just to see everything here – he’s really into it now, which means the trainer’s got to make sense when he’s talking!

I’ve not experienced the ‘hairdryer’ anyway, I think that was all made up, he’s a pure gentleman, Sir Alex.

Every time this horse has travelled, Oisin (Orr) has gone with him and wants to go with him. He likes to ride him out in the morning and has done so here all week. He rode him out all week in Bahrain at the last meeting, he rode him out in Saudi and in Bahrain the year before too. If he wants to keep doing it I’ll let him do it.

I’m sure I’ll be a little bit nervous at the weekend, this is one of the big ones now, it’s a proper race with a lot of prize money which is what it’s all about. It’s great to have the opportunity to run in this so I’m not sure I’ll be too cool when the gates open. All you want is to get a run, you want things to go right and don’t want excuses so fingers crossed we at least get that.

He needs to step up again but he travelled well (through the race) in Bahrain which is always good in these big races. If he hits the gates and travels like that, I’m sure he won’t let himself down.

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