The four-times champion trainer in South Africa was just delighted when owner Raymond Chow Hon-man peeled back the sticker on the Cathay Pacific toy suitcase to reveal barrier four.

'That's perfect,' Ferraris said. 'Everything else has gone perfectly this week, too, and I'll get my wish for a strongly-run race as well. The horse [Vengeance Of Rain] will have his final sprint in the morning but I couldn't be happier with the way everything has fallen into place.'

Just as satisfied, though his canny Irish nature doesn't allow him to show it as much, was Jim Bolger, trainer of defending Hong Kong Cup heroine Alexander Goldrun.

'She drew badly last year in gate 12 and had the luck to overcome it, this year we have drawn barrier one and that's ideal for her.'

The pacemaker looks certain to be visiting American three-year-old Willow O Wisp, who led throughout to take the Del Mar Derby over 1,800 metres last start on September 5 in a new course record time.

And should something happen to Willow O Wisp at the start, free-running German galloper Epalo will be there to take it up. He's a renowned front-runner himself and took the field along at a strong clip once again in the Premio Roma in Italy last start.

It was a mixed bag for Hong Kong's champion jockey Douglas Whyte, the only 'local' to have rides in all four internationals.

'Able Prince [HK Sprint] has drawn out in 11, and I'd have much preferred to get something closer in for him,' Whyte said. 'But barrier two for High Intelligent in the Mile is just perfect. He has the early speed to put himself in a good position and I've got a horse with good early speed [Scintillation] drawn inside me.'

Owner Hui Sai-fun asked his first-time jockey Eric Saint-Martin to represent him at the Hong Kong Mile barrier draw and the Frenchman handled himself adroitly, picking the suitcase that hid the treasured inside gate.

'I have ridden Scintillation three times this week and this morning, down the riverside, he came out of the stalls and jumped brilliantly,' Saint-Martin said. 'Now that he has drawn a good barrier, it will be important for him to make use of it but the way he jumped from the gates this morning, I'm sure he will.'

Scintillation ran a close fourth in last year's Mile, behind Goldolphin's Firebreak, after attempting to lead throughout.

One Hong Kong team whose wishes were totally ignored by the barrier gods were connections of The Duke, who desperately wanted an inside draw so that the fierce-travelling gelding could be smothered away by visiting rider Darren Beadman.

'That's exactly what we didn't want,' Fownes said despondently. 'That's going to make things very difficult for him. He's needs cover.'

David Oughton, however, had no complaints after his globe-travelling iron horse Cape Of Good Hope drew barrier seven in the $10 million Hong Kong Sprint. The chestnut had earlier looked in great shape working out on the all-weather track and may finally get his day in the domestic spotlight after the abdication of long-time rival Silent Witness.