'There is much more chance of you winning the Triple Trio than there is of this [foot-and-mouth] infection'

Champion Fairy King Prawn restated his world class quality with victory yesterday but trainer Ivan Allan was not celebrating. Instead, Allan lashed out angrily at the horse's likely exclusion from his defence of the Group One Yasuda Kinen title in Japan.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club informed Allan of a communication it had received from the Japan Racing Association that Fairy King Prawn would not be allowed to compete in Japan as he had raced in Dubai and carried the risk of foot-and-mouth infection. But Japanese horses which raced at the same Dubai World Cup meeting last month have been allowed back into their home country to race.

'Someone somewhere has to tell them to pull their fingers out,' Allan railed after watching the gelding demolish the Chairman's Sprint Prize field at Sha Tin yesterday. 'They have to start to be sincere. Either it's open or it's not. You can't say one thing and do another.'

The Hong Kong Jockey Club is also hugely disappointed with the decision and plans to take the issue into the diplomatic arena. Director of racing Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said the Club would ask the Hong Kong Government to take up the matter with Tokyo at government level.

'Japanese horses also raced in Dubai and they have no problem returning to Japan to race,' he said. 'Some people would perhaps look at this situation and say that it was protectionism by the Japanese. I am not saying that, but I can see how some people might say it.

'For the Jockey Club, we are very disappointed with this decision and we feel we have an obligation for the owner [Lau Sak-hong] and for our Hong Kong trainer Ivan Allan, to stand up for them in this situation so that Fairy King Prawn gets fair treatment and the chance to show that he will still be the best miler in Japan.'

The blame for the ban has been somewhat ambiguous, with the Japan Racing Association saying it is a government ban and the Japanese Government insisting the JRA makes the decision on which horses receive invitations to its races.