QE II Cup holder Presvis takes it easy
Defending Audemars Piguet QE II Cup winner Presvis might be worrying a few observers with his minimal participation at trackwork this week, but Luca Cumani's travelling foreman, Charlie Henson, is not one.
Most international visitors will be asked to produce one piece of work to top them off after arriving at Sha Tin, but the only trackwork appearance of Presvis has been a low-key walk around on the track and in the parade yard yesterday.
'Our flight from Dubai was delayed by 12 hours, so we didn't arrive until Tuesday morning, but he has settled in well and I think he recognises the place coming here for the third time,' said Henson (pictured), who has travelled the world with the six-year-old. 'As far as work goes, Presvis did the last of it in Dubai on Sunday morning and he worked very well. All we need to do here is keep him ticking over.'
While his form guide reads a last-start 11th in the Dubai Duty Free, Presvis was stuck between runners in the straight and didn't really get to show the whistling finishing speed that is his trademark.
'We were really pleased with his win in the Jebel Hatta leading up to the Duty Free and he seemed to be in his best form going into World Cup night,' Henson said. 'That race was no guide, but we have no reason to believe he won't perform - he seems to be in the same kind of form he took into the QE II Cup last year.'
However, as Cumani had done before the Dubai Duty Free when Presvis was the bookies' favourite, Henson warned the horse needed luck and a slow tempo on Sunday would play against him.
'That's always a concern with his style. If they are quickening off the bend and he's back at the rear in the same position he normally is, it certainly isn't going to help,' he said.
'With a slower tempo, the field can stay bunched up and the gaps through the field don't come, but I'm afraid that's just one of those things we can't do much about.'
