Vasil very confident of Elvstroem success

Tony Vasil continues to be bullish about the chances of Elvstroem in tomorrow’s Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup in Hong Kong.

The Australian raider took the Dubai Duty Free at Nad Al Sheba last month and has been impressing in his work on the track at Sha Tin ahead of the Group One contest.

Vasil had been considering a European campaign for Elvstroem after his run in Dubai and the five-year-old had a quick preparatory spin on the turf course today.

“It’s all systems go,” said the trainer. “He’s as good as he’s ever been – probably better than he has ever been.

“At home I would have dashed him up on the morning of the race, but here given the warm weather I thought it wiser to give him 24 hours to maintain his freshness.

“He hadn’t had a serious gallop since Wednesday so I did want to give him one more hit-out.”

Elvstroem is joined by another Antipodean runner, Grand Armee, who has also settled in well the former colony despite the humidity.

Trainer Gai Waterhouse reported: “Nothing’s gone wrong and that’s the main thing when you’re away from home.”

There are three European representatives amongst the 19 challenging for the valuable 10 furlong prize, with Touch Of Land from France and the Andrew Balding-trained Phoenix Reach from Britain, who also scored in Dubai when landing the Sheema Classic.

Neither worked today and the former has a sore hoof and will have to be inspected by the vets before he can run.

Globe-trotting German runner Epalo also did his final piece of work, using the all-weather circuit.

The six-year-old has won in Singapore before and scored in his homeland earlier this month.

“He is a real pleasure to train,” said handler Andreas Schutz. “He’s had his problems in the past, and we’ve given him time, but after his last run his jockey said he thought that he was maybe better than ever.

“There may be one or two with a little more class in the race, but this is such a genuine horse.”