Romantic Warrior will face a capacity field from a double-digit gate – and perhaps a wet track for the first time in his career – at Flemington on Saturday, but at least the Group One Turnbull Stakes (2,000m) betting favourite is eating his favourite feed again.

Although allocated barrier 11 in the draw for the A$750,000 (HK$3.7 million) Turnbull Stakes, Romantic Warrior will start Saturday’s eighth of 10 events at the Melbourne course from stall 10 if the contest’s first emergency, El Patroness, does not get a run.

Only one Hong Kong-based galloper, 2005 Group One Australia Stakes/William Reid Stakes (1,200m) winner Cape Of Good Hope, has won a race on Australian soil.

For Romantic Warrior to equal Cape Of Good Hope’s feat and join the likes of David Hayes-trained Japan Cup victor Better Loosen Up, three-time Melbourne Cup heroine Makybe Diva and four-time Cox Plate champion Winx on the Turnbull Stakes honour roll, he will have to beat at least three fellow Group One winners – possibly four if El Patroness sneaks into the field.

Australian bookmakers reacted to Romantic Warrior’s outside draw by posting odds-against quotes about last season’s Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) champion winning this weekend’s Turnbull Stakes for his connections – owner Peter Lau Pak-fai, rider James McDonald and trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing.

On a dry surface similar to the ones at Happy Valley and Sha Tin on which he has won 10 of his 14 starts – including three Group One events over 2,000m, plus the Hong Kong Derby over the same trip – Romantic Warrior would be worthy of Turnbull Stakes odds-on favouritism, particularly given his first-up record.

But Flemington curator Liam O’Keeffe rated the track a soft six on Australia’s 1-10 scale – one being the firmest and 10 being the heaviest – on Wednesday, and the Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting showers on Thursday and Friday before a cloudy Saturday and a race-time temperature of just 15 degrees Celsius.

“He hasn’t raced on a wet track, so it’s unknown,” Shum said after the Turnbull Stakes draw was neither kind nor unkind to Romantic Warrior, who possesses gate speed. “Maybe yes, maybe no. We don’t know.”

HK’s only other Turnbull runner ‘a good horse but not a patch on Romantic Warrior’

However, we know Romantic Warrior is licking his bin clean again after the Jockey Club, Racing Victoria and multiple other parties resolved the issue that had prevented Shum from serving up the five-year-old’s preferred feed for several weeks.

“I’d like to thank the Hong Kong Jockey Club and Paul Bloodworth [of Racing Victoria]. They helped my team a lot,” Shum said. “They flew some Hallway 13 [feed] to Werribee – 48 packs – and Romantic Warrior is eating much better now, as is Romantic Charm.

“Romantic Warrior is 1,150 pounds at the moment, which is only a few pounds less than his usual weight. It’s not too bad in the circumstances.”

Jockey Club officials weigh every horse before they race in Hong Kong. Romantic Warrior weighed between 1,148 and 1,159 pounds across his six starts last term.