YORK racing punters will be hoping North Yorkshire's equine superstar Attraction will be a flop in the Far East a week today.

If she succeeds in a high profile race out there she will miss the Royal Ascot meeting at York.

Middleham-based Mark Johnston's filly was this week flown out to Hong Kong to tackle the Asian

Mile Challenge two-leg series which could pocket connections a £1.3million windfall.

She will take on the brilliant Silent Witness, winner of his last 17 races, in the Champions Mile at the Happy Valley track on May 14 with £300,000 to the winner.

If Attraction triumphs in the Group One race she will move on to Japan for the second leg to figure in the Yashda Kinen race, which has a first prize of £465,000, in Tokyo on June 5. If a horse wins both races then the total prize money will be topped up to £1.3m.

Johnston's stable star won the Coronation Stakes for three-year-olds at last year's Royal Ascot but will only contest the Queen Anne Stakes on the opening day of the Royal meeting on Tuesday, June 14, in what would be her debut on Knavesmire, if she fails in the Far Fast where she will be ridden by usual partner Kevin Darley, the Sheriff Hutton-based jockey.

Updated: 10:19 Saturday, May 07, 2005