While the question of a tilt for Ambitious Dragon at the greatest riches available in horse racing might seem to most of us a great problem to have, history shows the gelding's connections have every right to be careful with their choices.
To anyone else, it looks a no-brainer to make the trip to Dubai in the aftermath of his stroll to win the Gold Cup on Sunday. The five-year-old would represent one of the best chances of desert glory ever sent by Hong Kong. Whether the US$10 million World Cup or US$5 million Duty Free were to be the target, that's an awful lot of prize money.
But owners Johnson Lam Pui-hung and Anderson Lam Hin-yue are not keen to make the trip to Meydan, and the past record of horses returning from Dubai backs their thinking.
The main examples cited are Vengeance Of Rain - who paid the price for his Sheema Classic win by returning short of his best form in the QE II and Champions & Chater, which cost him Horse of the Year in favour of the horse he had beaten in the Gold Cup before Dubai, Viva Pataca - and Viva Pataca himself the following year. He, too, wasn't on song for the QE II and Champions & Chater after finishing second in the Sheema in 2008.
But the list is longer than that.
In 2000, Resfa broke down while preparing in Dubai and that was the finish of him, and top horses like Vengeance Of Rain, Lucky Quality, Russian Pearl, Indigenous, King Dancer, Good Ba Ba and most recently Beauty Flash didn't return to the winner's stall after Dubai campaigns, even those who had performed strongly.