International RacingFalbrav, labelled by his trainer, Luca Cumani as the "best horse in the world", lived up to his star billing with a breathtaking victory in the Hong Kong Cup at the International meeting at Sha Tin yesterday. The five-year-old, who was having his last race before retiring to stud in Japan next year, was crowning a magnificent racing career.

Frankie Dettori settled the well-supported 7 to 10 favourite (Hong Kong Tote) towards the back of the 14-runner field as Weightless set a good pace with Rakti, who had gone straight into the stalls but had dwelt as the gates opened, held up in the rear.

Both horses made significant headway as the runners turned for home where Japanese challenger Eishin Preston went to the front. But Dettori had him in his sights and as soon as he pressed the button on Falbrav, Luca Cumani's star responded with a devastating turn of foot, which carried him to the front approaching the final furlong of the mile-and-a-quarter Group One contest.

As he made his move Falbrav just nudged Rakti but it did not effect the result as the massive horse strode majestically clear to score by two lengths from Michael Jarvis's colt, who in turn was a length and a quarter clear of Elegant Fashion with the French filly Bright Sky back in fourth. Cumani: "He is the best horse in the world and always has been. He's run in 10 Group Ones this year and won five of them and it maybe should have been one more. He has proved himself around the world."

Dettori, who survived a late injury scare to partner Falbrav for the first time since they took last year's Japan Cup, treated the near 60,000 crowd to his customary flying dismount. Afterwards he said: "He's a fantastic horse. He's up there with the very best I've ridden. Today's performance was electric. They said to me just wait a bit longer today and I did and he just flew.

"I was 100 per cent confident even though we were so far back and I knew Luca had him 110 per cent. This horse has an explosive turn of foot and he just took my breath away. I haven't had a sensation like that for a while."

Elie Lellouche's filly Vallee Enchantee came with a late surge to deprive the Andre Fabre-trained Polish Summer in the Vase.