Sky Darci will be walking among giants when it comes to price tags on Sunday as he steps out in the BMW Hong Kong Derby, but his trainer Caspar Fownes wouldn’t have it any other way.

Sky Darci is the only horse to have arrived in Hong Kong unraced, meaning he did not attract the monster offers that came for the likes of Shadow Hero and Russian Emperor after they starred in their home jurisdictions.

He is looking to follow in the footsteps of superstar Golden Sixty, who was just the sixth previously unraced horse to win the Derby since it became a 2,000m race in 2000.

“There are a lot of expensive purchases there,” Fownes said. “We’re talking in excess of HK$15 million for some of them. They’ll be needing that winner’s cheque to get that return.”

While Sky Darci cost just a fraction of those highly rated imports, Fownes explains it is not straightforward getting a previously unraced horse through the taxing Classic Series.

The son of Darci Brahma boosted his rating from 52 to 103 in the space of his first 10 starts with his Class One victory in November setting him on track for January’s Classic Mile.

“It is like anything, when they come here and adapt they can fire,” Fownes said.

“These ones come here on 52, they can go through the grades then and put the points on pretty quickly which is what Sky Darci did.

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“In the early part of the season he went Class Three, Class Three, Class One and then just missed in a Group race next start.

“It just shows it doesn’t take much for them to get to that level if they have a bit of spunk about them. Every year you see there are three to five horses that do that.”

The fact he is the only horse in the Derby to have spent his whole racing career in Hong Kong shows the difficulty that comes with competing against big-name imports.

“It is a great result for the owners or for anyone that can get a horse like that into the Derby,” Fownes said.

“It’s all well and good to say you want to win with [a previously unraced horse] but at the end of the day you need horses to do it.

“There are plenty that come here on 52, get to around 70 and hit a wall. If you can break into Class Two, it is tough, but you’ve got a very nice horse with lots of potential if you can win.”

While there are question marks over Sky Darci’s ability to run 2,000m, he will be assisted by barrier two and the fact he will be ridden by Joao Moreira.

Fownes’ only previous Derby victory came with Super Satin in 2010, but he believes he finally has a horse capable of winning again.

“I am very happy with him, we have drawn a gate so he gets his chance to run a race,” he said.

“In this year’s race, on paper you don’t think anything is going to win by five [lengths]. It looks like there are four or five horses fighting it out with a few lengths between them, in my mind anyway.

“There is a lot of good horse flesh in there, I think in a year’s time you will see some of them go well into the triple figures [ratings].

“Like most here, they are having a bit of a rushed prep to get them here, the trainers are still working them out and they’re in a different environment. I hope I can win, I will be doing my best but best of luck to everyone.”