The final Group One of the Hong Kong season is not always the most thrilling of elite-level contests but the scene is certainly set for a bumper 2025 edition of the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m).

With big-name globetrotter Dubai Honour in town and Voyage Bubble alive in the Triple Crown, fans are expecting fireworks at Sha Tin on Sunday. Here’s the race by the numbers:

1 – The number of horses to have started the Champions & Chater Cup alive in the Triple Crown since River Verdon completed the coveted sweep in 1994. After wins in the Group One Stewards’ Cup (1,600m) and Group One Gold Cup (2,000m), Ambitious Dragon fell just short of Triple Crown glory in 2012, running second to Liberator by a length and a half. Golden Sixty twice did the Stewards’ Cup-Gold Cup double but never made the step out to 12 furlongs.

10 – The number of gallopers expected to run in this weekend’s Group One, which would be the race’s equal-biggest field in the past 20 years. While 12 gallopers were entered for the contest, Dennis Yip Chor-hong removed Noisy Boy early this week, not wanting to run his Group Three Queen Mother Memorial Cup (2,400m) runner-up off a rating of just 86, and Frankie Lor Fu-chuen-trained dirt specialist Sword Point came out on Wednesday.

5 – Cap Ferrat is looking to join the quintet of horses to have done the Hong Kong Derby-Champions & Chater Cup double in the same season since Hong Kong racing turned professional in the early 1970s. If the Francis Lui Kin-wai-trained Cap Ferrat can back up his March victory in the city’s most prestigious race, he will join Co-Tack (1983), River Verdon (1991), Makarpura Star (1995), Vengeance Of Rain (2005) and Viva Pataca (2006) in completing the increasingly rare double. After delivering the goods in the Derby, Australian jockey Craig Williams again jets in to partner Cap Ferrat.

3 – The number of seconds Romantic Warrior ran during the 2023 Triple Crown, trailing Golden Sixty home in the first two legs before being pipped by Russian Emperor in the finale. There will be a Romantic Warrior flavour at Sha Tin this Sunday, however, with the Jockey Club putting on a welcome home ceremony for the 10-time Group One winner after his three-race campaign in the Middle East. In town to partner Voyage Bubble, James McDonald will sit atop Romantic Warrior as he parades for fans at 3.10pm.

6 – Barrier stats are always going to be skewed for a race prone to small fields but for what it’s worth, gate one has provided the most Champions & Chater Cup winners since 1995 with six. Barriers four and seven follow close behind with five winners, while no other alley has thrown up more than three victors. It’s the visitor, Dubai Honour, who jumps from the inside stall on Sunday, while Ensued has gate four and Cap Ferrat seven. Winning Dragon looks the potential leader from the outside alley of 10, while Voyage Bubble is poised to get the dream run from stall three.

1 – On storming to victory in the race a year ago, Rebel’s Romance became the first overseas winner of the Champions & Chater Cup. After running second behind Giavellotto in December’s Group One Hong Kong Vase (2,400m), Dubai Honour looks very well placed to become the second. Overseas fixed-odds markets have local hero Voyage Bubble a $1.65 favourite and Dubai Honour a $2.75 second elect.

3 – Group One wins by Voyage Bubble this season. A fourth this weekend would put Ricky Yiu Poon-fai’s superstar firmly in the Hong Kong Horse of the Year conversation alongside Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior.