A Shin Hikari, one of Japan’s leading performers at around 10 furlongs, made an astonishing European debut in the Group One Prix d’Ispahan at Chantilly on Tuesday, winning by 10 lengths with a field that included New Bay, last year’s French Derby winner, strung out behind him.

A Shin Hikari is now the clear favourite for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot next month, but will not run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October as the 12-furlong trip is considered beyond his reach.

Vadamos, a Group Two winner at St Cloud in early May, made most of the early running in Tuesday’s race but Yutake Take was in close attendance on A Shin Hikari, who moved ahead a quarter of a mile out and then stretched further clear all the way to the post. Dariyan, a Group One winner himself in the Prix Ganay last time, was second with New Bay, the favourite, only sixth.

Initially, A Shin Hikari was cut to around 4-1 for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, behind Found, the Breeders’ Cup Turf winner last year. Sustained support saw the five-year-old contract to clear favourite for the Group One feature on the second day of the meeting, however, at a top price of 5-2. Found is an 11-2 chance, with New Bay third in the list at 6-1.

“He did that very well,” Masanori Sakaguchi, A Shin Hikari’s trainer, said. “The ground was our only worry, but he won magnificently. To try running in French races was the choice of his owners. He will run at Ascot and will then return to Japan, as the Arc trip will be too far for him.”