'We have accepted the invitation. We will ship him on time, arrive on time and win on time' - Doumen

Jim And Tonic, fresh from his thrilling weekend win in Dubai, was yesterday confirmed on course for another crack at the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup on April 22. After the 1999 winner was named among eight overseas horses selected for the 2,000-metre contest, trainer Francois Doumen was quick to take up the challenge of another Hong Kong raid.

'We have accepted the invitation. We will ship him on time, arrive on time, get him ready on time and win on time,' said a confident Doumen, who will be keen to erase the bad memories of last year's race when Jim And Tonic finished second to Industrialist in controversial circumstances. The trainer sacked Gerald Mosse after blaming him for the narrow defeat, but the jockey was later reinstated and was aboard Doumen's globetrotter on Saturday when he took the Dubai Duty Free by a neck from Fairy King Prawn.

Doumen, who said Jim And Tonic would go on to contest the Singapore Airlines International Cup on May 12, added: 'The horse is back in France already and he is absolutely fine. He has come out of the race really well and we are looking forward to another trip to Hong Kong.'

The QEII Cup carries international Group One status for the first time this year and the Hong Kong Jockey Club was delighted with the standard of entries for the race, which is rated the best since it was opened to international competition in 1996.

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the Club's director of racing, said: 'This time last year we only had six horses whose connections wanted to come - this year there were decisions which had to be made to emerge with this group of only eight,' he said.

One of those decisions was to reject the Japanese contingent. 'We do not feel an obligation to include horses from a particular country regardless of their standard,' he said. 'We have a Group One international race here and we did not feel that the Japanese entries were strong enough to justify an invitation.'

The other overseas selections are headed by Germany's top middle-distance horse Samum, whose international rating of 124 puts him a pound ahead of Jim And Tonic. Trained by Andreas Schutz, Samum was unlucky on his previous visit for the Hong Kong Cup in December when he was short of racing room in the straight and finished sixth behind Fantastic Light. He is likely to be ridden by Andrasch Starke if given the go-ahead for the QEII Cup.