Douglas Whyte is happy with how Russian Emperor has pulled up from Sunday’s Group Three Queen Mother Memorial Cup (2,400m) and is looking forward to seeing his stable star attempt to defend his crown in a Group One Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) that could feature as many as four Godolphin runners.

Sixth behind Straight Arron at Sha Tin on Sunday, Russian Emperor will face a stern test against local superstar Romantic Warrior and potentially some of Charlie Appleby-trained quartet Global Storm, Rebel’s Romance, Siskany and Yibir in the final Group One of the Hong Kong season on May 28.

“Charlie isn’t scared to travel. He’s obviously done very well travelling, so it’s interesting,” Whyte said of the four international Champions & Chater Cup entries.

“Russian Emperor pulled up OK. At this stage, we’ll head towards the Champions & Chater. I thought it was a very good run on Sunday.

“I watched the replay a couple of times, and he was all dressed up with nowhere to go turning in. Hugh [Bowman] agrees there was nothing he could do really but sit there and wait.

“The lightweights dropped him, and I thought he came back quite strongly at the end. Lumping that weight around with a slower pace than we anticipated, I was happy with the run.”

Bowman will stick with Russian Emperor for the Champions & Chater Cup after he finished two and three-quarter lengths behind Straight Arron on the weekend. However, Caspar Fownes has confirmed it is unlikely his four-year-old will be pitched into his first Group One test later this month.

“We’ll probably just have a couple of weeks easy, see how he is. I don’t think I’m going to go to the Group One, but I might run him on June 25 in the Group Three [Premier Plate] over 1,800m,” Fownes said of Straight Arron.

Global Storm won the Group Two Dubai City Of Gold (2,400m) at Meydan in March, beating Fownes’ Senor Toba home by nearly seven lengths, and was seen last finishing second to stablemate Hurricane Lane in the Group Two Jockey Club Stakes (2,400m) at Newmarket on the weekend.

Rebel’s Romance won the Group One Breeders’ Cup Turf (2,400m) in November before joining Russian Emperor and Senor Toba in being blown away by Equinox in the Group One Dubai Sheema Classic (2,400m) on Dubai World Cup night in March.

Siskany also ran on Dubai World Cup night, finishing second to Broome in the Group Two Dubai Gold Cup (3,200m), while Yibir won the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2021 but has not raced in more than 10 months.