Sunday’s (14 December) HK$26 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase (2400m) is certainly high on quality, but what makes it an intriguing race is how tightly grouped the leading contenders are on ratings.

While Los Angeles officially has a three-pound break on his rivals at 123, he hasn’t run to that level in his last three starts, bringing a quartet of 120-rated rivals into play, including Sosie and Giavellotto, who finished third and fourth in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (2400m).

There is a further three-pound break back to Urban Chic, the winner of the third leg of Japan’s Triple Crown in 2024, the G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger, 3000m), and a colt who finished fifth behind Masquerade Ball in the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn (2000m). 

On that occasion, Christophe Lemaire was aboard the winner and his fellow Frenchman Alexei Pouchin rode Urban Chic. 

Now Lemaire resumes the partnership and believes there are signs of a revival in the four-year-old son of Suave Richard. 

“He’s a Classic winner in Japan having won the Japanese St Leger over 3000 metres, but I think his best trip is 2400 or 2500 metres,” Lemaire said.

“During the spring, he was not at his best, but it looks like he’s coming back to top condition after running brilliantly to be fifth in the Tenno Sho.

Lemaire added: “The Tenno Sho form is very good and while the horse will need to be at his best to win, he’s got plenty of potential and I’m quite confident.”

The man tasked with fulfilling that potential is trainer Ryo Takei, who will be saddling his first runner at Sha Tin on Sunday in the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase. 

Takei said: “He put in a great finishing effort in the Tenno Sho. I also think Sha Tin will suit him.”

Carrying the Silk Racing colours made famous by Almond Eye and Equinox, Urban Chic has delighted Takei in the build-up to his first trip abroad. 

“If you compare his condition when he did his final piece of fast work two weeks out from the Tenno Sho and two weeks before this race, I think he is in much better shape,” Takei said.

“He wasn’t at his absolute best for the Tenno Sho because it was his first run back off a layoff after the (G1) Takarazuka Kinen (2200m) but he is 100 per cent ready ahead of this race.” 

As a Classic winner who then ran well on his first try against opposition aged three or above to be sixth in the G1 Arima Kinen (2500m) last December, Urban Chic might have been expected to travel before now. 

But while he is Takei’s first career Group 1 winner, the trainer has shown he is his own man in terms of planning the colt’s four-year-old campaign. 

Takei said: “As a two-year-old he had a very difficult temperament, and even now he can’t train alone. So I am very impressed with his mental development. 

“The owners were keen to go overseas in the spring, but I wasn’t confident he had the temperament to handle a foreign trip at the time. Now, I am very happy that he can cope with the big races abroad.”

Which brings us back to that key piece of form in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Both Sosie and Giavellotto will be much better suited by a fast Sha Tin track than the rain-softened conditions they faced at Longchamp, but Byzantine Dream – a horse against whom Urban Chic has a three-nil career record – finished less than a length and a neck respectively behind Sosie and Giavellotto in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Takei said: “I think this is his best distance and Urban Chic has always been very competitive when he has run against Byzantine Dream.”

It is likely Urban Chic will need to run a career-best to win the LONGINES Hong Kong Vase on Sunday, but both Lemaire and Takei appear to be quietly confident that he is ready to deliver just such a performance.

Sunday’s (14 December) 10-race fixture at Sha Tin starts at 12.25pm with the Class 4 Fairy King Prawn Handicap (1400m).