No jockey has had more BMW Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) success in the past decade than Hugh Bowman and on Sunday the Australian gets a golden opportunity to bank his third victory in the city’s most prestigious race.

With victory aboard Helios Express, Bowman – who was successful with Werther in 2016 and Furore in 2019 – would join Joao Moreira (Rapper Dragon) and Vincent Ho Chak-yiu (Golden Sixty) as the only riders to orchestrate a Classic Series clean sweep.

The John Size-trained Helios Express enters his date with destiny with a slight cloud over his head after a recent hoof infection, but the vets have given the star four-year-old the tick of approval and Bowman is confident nothing will be left to chance.

“I’m not concerned about where he’s at and I’m confident John will have him where he needs to be,” said Bowman of the galloper he has partnered to Classic Mile and Classic Cup successes already this season. “If we can get a nice, smooth run he ought to make his presence felt.”

The other question mark is Helios Express’ gate, with the son of Toronado likely to find himself near the back of the field from gate 13 in a contest that could well be slowly run.

“It’s important that he relaxes. He needs to relax to run the distance so we’ll have to ride a conservative race,” Bowman said.

“It’ll depend on other people’s decisions as to how far back we go, but we’ll just get him to settle whether he’s midfield or further back. There’s not that much I can do about it.

“He’s got the class but we don’t want to undo it in the first half, we’ve got to ensure we’ve got some energy left for the business end.”

While Bowman did not exactly shoot the lights out on his return from suspension at Rosehill in Sydney on Saturday, with a best finish of sixth from four rides, Blake Shinn will arrive in Hong Kong riding a wave of Group One Golden Slipper (1,200m) euphoria.

Shinn snared the prestigious two-year-old feature aboard Lady Of Camelot on his way to a treble and will look to continue his white-hot form aboard Derby wild card Galaxy Patch.

“My job is to try to get him to relax for the first part of the race and I would say that arguably he’s got the best turn of foot in the race,” Shinn said of Galaxy Patch, who steps out over further than 1,400m for the first time and must contend with barrier 14.

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“I think this horse has got the class to overcome the barrier if he relaxes and gives himself every chance to run the distance out.

“Coming over and riding him in trackwork the other day, I found he’s not an aggressive horse. He’s a little bit keen and wants to please you a bit too much, but he doesn’t want to fight you and rip and tear.

“If it’s a slowly run race, I think he’ll want to work with me and relax well enough – I’m hopeful and confident of that.”