Highfield Princess: At the Yorkshire yard of former Channel 4 Racing boss John Fairley's 'fastest sprinter in Europe'

“The extraordinary thing is that only a couple of months ago I was standing in the parade ring in Lexington, Kentucky watching my nine-year old grandson Joel being interviewed on American television telling the reporter all about Highfield Princess,” said John, whose home is Highfield in Norton where trainer John Quinn trains Highfield Princess along with around 60 other horses.

John was full of smiles as he recounted the snowballing of grandchildren, children and friends attending each of Highfield Princess’ successes with him and his lovely wife Kitty.

“It had all started when we got the horse entered at Deauville. One of my three daughters and her husband and their three children were holidaying on the Isle of Wight. As soon as they heard about Highfield Princess’ entry they all jumped on a ferry, came across and were there when she won.

“French television couldn’t quite believe that this gang of English kids were crowding around the winning horse or where on earth they had come from. It was then, of course, impossible to stop them coming to York. And then of course they had to come to Ireland where I had done a lot of television work and see her winning there.

“And, of course, by now there were about a dozen and more of all my daughters, their friends and my grandchildren who were all loving the journey. So when she was going to run in the Breeders’ Cup we all had to get on a plane to Kentucky. Those big races that she’d won in Ireland and in Yorkshire gave you free entry into the Breeders Cup and so it was terribly tempting to have a go.

“She ran very well without winning but carting this gang of grandchildren and relatives around Europe and a bit of America has been absolutely wonderful.

It is just another extraordinary chapter in an extraordinary life that saw John as one of the first people involved with Yorkshire Television when it was born in 1968 and heading up Channel 4 Racing until 2012, but he wasn’t a horse racing man in his early years over in Liverpool where he was born.

“I was brought up not far from Aintree, pretty much within the sound of the Grand National, but for years, even while with Channel 4 Racing I had been an outside observer.

“Channel 4 Racing got me ever more hooked and I only lived in Eddlethorpe, about five miles away from Highfield Stables, which I knew was a jewel in the crown of horse racing. It is unique in the north of England with the clock tower, where Kitty now has her art studio.

“Almost the first person who came to see me, because they all knew there was a vacancy for a trainer, was John Quinn. We got on immediately and we haven’t fallen out in 15 years although we’re in business together and he’s an independent trainer.

“He has been incredibly successful for us as owners. I’ve never had many horses with him, but he has always trained at least two or three of my racehorses. I am just owner, breeder and spectator, with my now somewhat larger and louder family entourage.

“We lived at Trainer’s House in Eddlethorpe before coming here which is why the business is called Trainers House Enterprises. The first notable horse was Torre Alta, which is High Tower in French. She was trained in France and won some decent races there.

John said his love affair with French racing and French born racehorses started through his eldest daughter Theodora.

“Theodora was quite a decent rider and needed some help with her French for her O levels, so I sent her to France in her summer holidays to work for a trainer I knew of called Jean Lesbordes.

“It all turned out terribly well. Theodora used to ride out Urban Sea, probably the most famous mare of modern times, who won the Arc 1993. I then got very interested in French racing, so we had two or three horses in France before we had any in England.

Highfield Princess is French-born and John said her success came out of the blue and once again came from a family connection.

“We’d had good horses in the past that had won a few races, but nothing very grand. There are always ups and downs in the racehorse world. I had a mare that had come from France. She was in foal to a horse called Le Havre. She collapsed and died on us for no apparent reason.

“That’s when my daughters, who all live close by, spurred me on to go to the sales. I bought the dam Pure Illusion that was in-foal to a horse called Night of Thunder and the foal inside her was Highfield Princess. I sent Pure Illusion to France for her foal to be born because you get tremendously better prize money if have (FR) against it. It’s all down to the French betting system which pumps a lot of money into racing.

“I’d love to say there was some great masterplan as Night of Thunder was a very fast 2000 Guineas winner, but there wasn’t, and sadly Pure Illusion was only able to give us one more foal before she died. So, we’ve at least got another racehorse, now a 3-year old, out of her, who is at the stables here Highfield Viking and will start his racing career this year.

John was at Doncaster this week to see another of his horses Highfield Prince run in a bumper, but it is unlikely that Highfield Princess will be running too soon.

“She’s just come back from a well-earned little holiday and I don’t think she’ll race before April but racing this year is our plan and after that we hope she will start having foals.

“She thrives on quite hard training and is a determined creature. We will all look forward to reliving those days we had last year with hopefully York in May and Royal Ascot.

“She’s the fastest sprinter in Europe at the moment and one thing that my entourage of my daughters and my grandchildren are completely opposed to is me doing anything stupid like selling her, however many noughts there are on the end.