It wasn’t the fairytale outcome hoped for, but the Lindsay Park team remains upbeat after Mr Brightside trailed the field in the Group 1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin.

Sent out at $5.40 for the 1600-metre contest, Mr Brightside couldn’t deliver the anticipated result. Ben Hayes joked he could have funded a few beers if he had a dollar for every question he was asked about the horse in the lead-up.

“The stable is clearly disappointed,” Ben said.

JD Hayes added, “He just looked to get a bit fierce behind them.

“Then when he wasn’t going to be running into contention, Craig (Williams) looked after him a bit.

“That did extenuate the margin but the horse will be fine.”

Ben later reassured that Mr Brightside appeared okay post-race.

“He seemed fine after the race,” he said. “He’ll probably be vetted and we will see how he is in the morning but it doesn’t look to be anything significant or concerning.”

“It was well worth the experience though.”

Meanwhile, another Australian connection celebrated success as John Size and Hugh Bowman teamed up to win the Mile with Red Lion, who started at $90 and survived a protest to defeat the $1.40 favourite, Voyage Bubble.