Racing fans enjoy all sorts of different types of horse, from the brave front runners to those with a blistering turn of foot, but the sort which usually ignites the fervour more than any other is the one who drops the bit early, or lacks the pace to go with them, but still manages to win from tailed off positions.

The most famous example of this sort in South Africa was the mighty 20-time winner Sea Cottage. The Hong Kong racing fraternity must currently be wondering whether they have a Sea Cottage of their own in the unbeaten German-bred three-year-old gelding Pakistan Star.

On debut over 1200m at Sha Tin on July 1 at odds of 15/1 the Tony Cruz-trained gelding was slow away a length and steadily lost touch with the rest of the runners until he was tailed off by some six or seven lengths and was around 15 lengths off the leader. He made up ground around the turn under a calm ride by Matthew Chadwick and then extended in the short straight to pass the field and win going away by 1,75 lengths.

There was a buzz of anticipation when he lined up for his second start on Sunday at Sha Tin in a handicap over 1400m, with Chadwick once again aboard. He was clearly going to relish the step up in trip and blinkers had also been applied. The crowd gasped when he was even slower away this time, losing two lengths.

He struggled to go with them again and was soon tailed off by about three lengths and a dozen or so lengths off the lead. However, his finish was a carbon copy of his first race. Still last at the 400m mark, the crowd roared the budding hero home. He passed the backmarkers just before the 300m mark, but such is his finishing surge he was in front by the 90m mark and won cosily by 1,25 lengths.

The tales of the great Sea Cottage’s wins from impossible positions are legend and Pakistan Star is certainly one to follow having already caused a stir around the world in just two career starts to date. Ironically, Pakistan’s Star’s sire Shamardal , a four-time Gr 1 winner in England and France from seven furlongs to ten-and-a-half furlongs, was an out and out front runner. Shamardal is a son of “The Iron Horse”, Giant’s Causeway, who won five Gr 1s in succession in Europe as a three-year-old in 2000 and is now a sire of sires. Giant’s Causeway’s style was to either set the pace or track the pacemaker. A pacemaker was often put in his races by trainer Aiden O’Brien. Giant’s Causeway was known for his tremendous courage and all five of his Gr 1 victories in that memorable season were by narrow margins. Pakistan Star does at least seem to have inherited his father’s will to win.

David Thiselton