LUSH LASHES was the subject of an upbeat report from her jockey Kevin Manning ahead of Sunday's big international meeting in Hong Kong where she and Mores Wells will fly the flag for Ireland.
Mores Wells represents Kevin Prendergast in the mile and a half Cathay Pacific Vase and is a general 12 to 1 shot but ante-post bookmakers reckon Lush Lashes is the best Irish hope of success in the 10 furlong Cup.
Jim Bolger's triple Group One winner is a general 4 to 1 third favourite behind the big home hope Viva Pataca and the ex-Aidan O'Brien-trained Eagle Mountain.
Manning reported yesterday: "She has travelled well. She did a swing canter on the grass this morning and we are pleased with how she is going. She is a high class filly. She has been thrown in at the deepest level all year and competed at the highest level, so we are hopeful. The local horse (Viva Pataca) is an obvious one. He is the local and sets the standard."
Sunday will be the first time Lush Lashes has raced against males but her former stable companion Alexander Goldrun managed to win the same race in 2004.
That continued an Irish tradition in Hong Kong that began in 1991 when Dermot Weld's Additional Risk became the first European-trained runner to win in the former colony.
His jockey Michael Kinane has been booked to ride the Japanese raider Jaguar Mail in the Vase, the same race in which Pat Smullen will again team up with the Breeders' Cup Marathon winner Muhannak.
The four international races will be run at Sha Tin racecourse in the early hours of Sunday morning with a mile event and a five furlong sprint that includes the French superstar Marchard D'Or.
