This was the five-year-old Var entire’s first run for Mike de Kock and he became the first foreign horse in 14 runnings of this prestigious international event to emerge victorious.

Variety Club appeared to relish the return to turf, after two wins and a second on tapeta in Dubai, and this was likely a career best performance.

He showed his usual phenomenal gatespeed and that coupled with his high cruising speed saw him bounding into an early lead. He was soon joined by rank outsider Helene Spirit. The latter then took over, but Variety Club sat at his quarter in second without ever having to break his machine-like stride.

He was showing his usual signs of loving every minute of the race. Marcus brought him to the centre in the straight and he then quickened away from the pack and the massive crowd were soon embracing a new hero.

The hot favourite, the John Moore-trained Able Friend, who won the Gr 1 Hong Kong Classic Mile in January, didn’t have the best passage, having been caught wide early and then having to come from some way back under Joao “Magic” Moreira. The field concertinaed turning for home and he overtook most of them, but made no impression on Variety Club, who was pulling further clear at the line.

Variety Club was nurtured from a two-year-old into a twice Equus Horse of The Year by top Cape trainer Joey Ramsden, for whom he won 16 races, including four Gr 1s, four Gr 2s and four Gr 3s.

He couldn’t have got off to a better start with De Kock and might be the horse to convert the champion trainer’s long held dream of winning a European or North American Gr 1.

Variety Club’s critics have said that he is one dimensional and was gifted his races in South Africa by never being taken on in front by horses that were also referred to as inferior. However, his best assets, his tremendous gatespeed and his ability to quicken off his high cruising speed, were shown yesterday to be just as effective against world class opposition.

The class of the opposition is probably reflected in his amazing winning odds of 12-1 on the Hong Kong tote. The critics have finally been silenced.

Owner Markus Jooste and his racing manager Derek Brugman were on course to cheer him home and so was his breeder, Anton Shepherd of Beaumont Stud.[/expand]