Take Sunday's dead-heat Jockey Club Sprint field, add four extra international invitees and throw in the return of Sprinters Stakes winner Ultra Fantasy, KrisFlyer victor Green Birdie and Al-Quoz Sprint raider Joy And Fun, and this year's Hong Kong Sprint promises to be the greatest sprint field assembled anywhere this year.
Hong Kong's formidable reputation as the sprint capital of the world has not deterred European, South African and Australian-based speedsters from throwing their hat in the ring - with the visitors' hopes no doubt buoyed by Singaporean Rocket Man's brilliant effort to dead-heat with One World last Sunday.
South African J J The Jet Plane, Kingsgate Native from England, Dalghar from France, and flying mare Ortensia from Australia will join Rocket Man in an attempt to wrest the world turf sprint championship away from the Hong Kong-based horses for the first time since Australia's Falvelon won in 2001.
At 120 in the international ratings, J J The Jet Plane is the highest-ranked visitor taking on the might of our 122-rated Sacred Kingdom, who showed vulnerability in his fifth placing at Sha Tin last Sunday, and if the trainer is half as fortunate as his name suggests, then the South African may indeed be the horse to conquer the locals.
Trainer Lucky Houdalakis had planned to bring his powerhouse sprinter for last year's running of the Sprint, but problems with the quarantine process kept him in South Africa until this year's renewal and he will complete a lengthy journey via England. A year on and the six-year-old gelding is ready to mix it with the best once again - after some deliberation between connections - and the South African sprinter has dominated the main sprints in his homeland this year.
Fellow southern hemisphere entrant Ortensia, trained by Tony Noonan at Mornington near Melbourne, will leave a cloud of controversy behind her when she boards her flight next Tuesday.
