'What more can you want' - Highfield Princess joy for John Fairley

Deauville provided a sort of glorious homecoming for Highfield Princess, a queen of Yorkshire who can boast a little French flair.

Owner-breeder John Fairley, who is not only trainer John Quinn's landlord but a former senior executive at Channel 4 Racing, was utterly overjoyed to see her take a first Group 1 prize with a characteristically fiery performance from the front in the Prix Maurice de Gheest.

Fairley had bought her in utero when he purchased her dam Pure Illusion for 18,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale in 2016. Now sadly departed, with just a two-year-old by Aclaim named Highfield Viking still to come, she had also produced the smart July Stakes winning two-year-old Cardsharp.

Highfield Princess carries the French suffix as she was bred in Normandy, where her breeder has kept a few horses in the past.

"This filly was foaled at Camp Benard, only about five miles away from here, after I'd bought the mare, then she came to England and she’s been tremendous, she’s got better and better and better," Fairley told Sky Sports Racing.

"Jason [Hart] is a terrific jockey, certainly for her, and when other horses come at her, get to her girth, she pulls out more. That’s what she’s done time and again.

"What a thrill for me, I've been coming to Deauville since I was a teenager, so to come and have a Group 1 winner here on a lovely day with that crowd and everything - what more can you want."

Highfield Princess, who is now five but made her debut little more than two years ago, has risen right through the grades and becomes her Kildangan Stud-based sire's third top-level scorer.

"She didn’t race as a two-year-old, she had a bit of an injury, we didn't really get her on a racetrack until she was half-way through her three-year-old career, but she won a jolly good Group 2 at York. I couldn’t have had a more wonderful day. It’s totally special.

"She lives just ten yards down the road in my stables. She's called Highfield Princess because we live in Highfield and John Quinn trains the horses from there. I pat her before she goes off and I’ll certainly give her a few pats when she gets back."

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