Presvis, who arrived in Hong Kong from Dubai early on Tuesday morning, did his first bit of familiarisation at Sha Tin this morning. But really the process was almost unnecessary as the defending APQEII Cup champion seemed so much at home at the scene of his greatest triumph to date it was almost as though he were giving his humans the conducted tour rather than the other way round.

It was strictly a walking tour of Sha Tin for the six-year-old son of Sakhee, but the Luca Cumani trained star clearly knew exactly where he was and completed his saunter down the straight and stroll round the parade ring with perfect aplomb.

In fact on this his third visit to Hong Kong - he finished third to Vision D'Etat in December's Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup after what his trainer felt was a slightly inadequate preparation - the only difference of opinion came when he exited again onto the course and made it fairly obvious he felt like turning right for some rather more strenuous exercise. He may get his wish in the next day or two when the finishing touches are applied for Sunday's International Group One.

"He's very well and very relaxed," said Charlie Henson, Cumani's assistant trainer who is supervising preparations for this year's tilt at the APQEII. "We were slightly delayed in Dubai and had to catch a later flight than originally intended. So technically we missed a day's work. But that's no problem. He worked on Sunday, he's travelled very well, and he's absolutely fine."

Champions Mile contender Dao Dao, who has looked magnificent this week, also did light work. But most of the attention this time was focused on his rider Jeff Lloyd who passed a medical yesterday afternoon after his fall from Lizard's Desire on Tuesday. Asked how the troublesome ankle was Lloyd replied: "lovely", a response which aesthetes might debate although there was no doubting the satisfaction in the South African's grin.

Several of Hong Kong's leading contenders for Sunday's features dispelled any doubts about their form and fitness with sharp workouts this morning.

Weichong Marwing was to the fore as he put Good Ba Ba and Viva Pataca through their paces. Good Ba Ba stretched out in impressive fashion as he ran the last 400m of his workout in 21.9 seconds and appeared to pull up well. "He felt good," Marwing said.

Viva Pataca worked over 1200m in 1.24.9 and looked good in his action as he comfortably completed the gallop with the last 400m in 24 seconds. Mr Medici, Super Satin and Unique Jewellery rounded off their exercise with similar closing 400m splits.

Mile contenders Thumbs Up, Able One and Sunny King were asked to extend at the close of their work this morning. Thumbs Up scooted home in 21.5 for his last 400m while Able One (23.1) and Sunny King (23.5) also galloped strongly.

Trainer Masanori Ito, who prepares Japanese APQEII Cup hopeful Never Bouchon, was on hand for the horse's gallop on the all-weather track at Sha Tin on Thursday morning and was pleased with his work.

Work rider Yuta Onodera, a JRA jockey, was on board and the seven-year-old clocked a slick 21.4 seconds for the last 400m of his 1200m workout.

Takafumi Aoki, the groom of Never Bouchon, said, "After the G2 Nikkei Sho (2500m race at Nakayama Racecourse on 27 March), we made a decision to target this Sunday's big race. We do not need to do much with him as he is super fit. All we need is for him to stay relaxed and hope his exercise continues without a hitch. All is going well so far."