James McDonald believes he can make an immediate impact at his “happy hunting ground” when the superstar jockey begins his five-week stint in Hong Kong on Sunday.

McDonald, who partnered Romantic Warrior to his historic Group One Cox Plate (2,040m) victory at Moonee Valley last month, will join the Hong Kong riding ranks until January 1 and he returns to Sha Tin armed with a nine-strong book of rides.

“Sha Tin is a fantastic track. Very fair, flat and not a tricky track,” McDonald said. “I’ve been coming up for many years now, and it’s been a happy hunting ground. Hopefully that continues.”

With 81 Group One wins to his name, it will come as no shock that McDonald has been entrusted with a host of winning chances on the 10-race card, including the John Size-trained Wunderbar in the Class Four Chevalier Lifts & Escalators Handicap (1,000m).

With Wunderbar an impressive debut winner under Karis Teetan over this course and distance three weeks ago, McDonald’s wait for the first win of his stint could be short, with the three-year-old attempting to maintain his unbeaten record in the second race on the programme.

“Wunderbar looked very smart on debut and did a very good job,” McDonald said. “There was a good gap to third, which is a good sign.”

Following Wunderbar’s success earlier this month, the son of Rich Enuff recorded a commanding win in an 800m turf trial at Conghua on November 17.

“He was very impressive in his trial as well. He seems to have not taken a backward step by the looks of that, and he should be hard to beat,” McDonald said.

McDonald has 14 wins to his name across more than a decade of Hong Kong stop offs and none more emphatic than Romantic Warrior’s triumph in last year’s Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m).

But while the 31-year-old rider will have to wait until December 10 to again hop aboard Romantic Warrior under race-day conditions, he does get the chance to reunite with another Peter Lau Pak-fai-owned galloper on Sunday.

Romantic Charm, who accompanied Romantic Warrior to Melbourne for his Cox Plate tilt last month, will make his first local appearance this season in the Class Three Chevalier Cold Storage & Logistics Handicap (1,600m).

After riding the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Romantic Charm to finish fifth over 1,600m at Sha Tin in April, McDonald hopped aboard the five-year-old on his first-up effort at Geelong last month, where the pair were a respectable fourth over 1,700m.

“I’ve ridden him a couple of times. His run at Geelong was probably a bit of a hidden run, to be fair,” McDonald said.

“He was back in the ruck a bit and didn’t have a lot of momentum in the straight, but he stuck to his guns OK. He’s a horse that only does what he has to, but he should be thereabouts.”

McDonald, who added five Group One wins to his illustrious CV during a successful spring in Australia, will ride at Kembla Grange on Saturday afternoon before arriving in Hong Kong on Sunday morning.