The HK$14 million question in tomorrow's Audemars Piguet QE II Cup is whether World Cup runner-up Lizard's Desire can bring his Dubai form to the turf at Sha Tin - and even Mike de Kock's globetrotting assistant Steven Jell cannot altogether answer that.
Perhaps it is just his growing maturity as a four-year-old, but Lizard's Desire leapt out of the ground in early 2010, winning two of his four starts in Dubai and went down by the narrowest of margins in the world's richest race, the US$10 million World Cup. It is form strong enough to see him winning the Sha Tin showpiece, but the problem is that all Lizard's Desire's outings at Meydan were on the new artificial surface, the Tapeta track.
'Our horse was a big improver in Dubai, but whether he just took to the new surface is what we hope to find out on Sunday,' Jell said. 'It looks like genuine improvement to have made the grade in a race like the World Cup, even if the surface was a positive. He works well on the turf and his turf record in South Africa had been pretty good as a three-year-old.'
In fact, Lizard's Desire had won four of his 13 starts in South Africa last season, with another six minor placings, all of which might have pointed to the gelding being open to progress at four.
Certainly, just the fact he is trained by De Kock makes Lizard's Desire worthy of attention - the powerhouse stable is a major player in big events worldwide and especially at Sha Tin. From a handful of runners here, De Kock has already won the QE II Cup twice - with Irridescence and Archipenko - and a Hong Kong Cup with Eagle Mountain, with Jell overseeing the preparations.
Yesterday, Lizard's Desire worked well, finishing second in a gallop behind Champions Mile-bound stablemate Imbongi, but that was all part of the plan, said Jell.