Giavellotto swooped late under Kerryman Oisin Murphy to take Group 1 honours in the Longines Hong Kong Vase at Sha Tin.

Trained by Marco Botti, the five-year-old is a dual Yorkshire Cup winner over 14 furlongs and was last seen when finishing third behind Kyprios in the Irish St Leger back in September.

Dropping back to a mile and a half here, Oisin Murphy got an early pitch on the rail as Japanese runner Pradaria set a steady early gallop and the challengers were stacking up behind turning for home.

As the Aidan O’Brien-trained Luxembourg and favourite Stellenbosch tried to make their runs down the outside, Murphy looked as though he could struggle for room.

However, once Murphy found space, Giavellotto responded in style and fairly sprinted home to claim a cosy success over the fast-finishing Dubai Honour, who made it a one-two for Britain.

Japanese-trained Stellenbosch kept on for third, with Luxembourg fifth on what was his final career start. His Ballydoyle stablemate Continuous never really got into the race and came home in ninth place.

Murphy said: “He had a beautiful trip round until we turned in, he relaxed great and was in a super rhythm. He got checked turning into the straight and often you don’t get going again, but how powerful was he late?

“Well done to team Marco Botti, it was a great plan coming here and they did an incredible job preparing him.”

The Aidan O'Brien-trained pair of Luxembourg and Continuous finished fifth and ninth respectively.

Local wins

Locally-trained horses won the other three international races, each of them favourites.

The Irish-bred Romantic Warrior (Vase) and Ka Yong Rising (Sprint) were both 1/10 favourites and won easily. Voyage Bubble (8/5 favourite) won the Mile.

Aidan O'Brien's Content finished seventh in the Vase and Wingspan was 10th. The Foxes (Andrew Balding) was fourth in the Vase and Richard Fahey's Spirit Dancer finished ninth.

In the Mile. European challengers Lazzat (Jerome Reynier), Docklands (Harry Eustace) and Ramadan (James Ferguson) were well beaten.