The European contingent for the Hong Kong International Races on Sunday at Sha Tin was up to full strength with the arrival of the French team at Sha Tin on Tuesday morning. The four French challengers headed by the Francois Doumen-trained Hong Kong Cup hope Jim and Tonic include Choc Ice and Terre a Terre, who also contest the Hong Kong Cup, the final leg of the Emirates World Series Racing Championship; and Francois Doumen's Foundation Spirit, who runs in the Hong Kong Vase.

Doumen himself arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening, and reported that Jim and Tonic, who is making his seventh visit to Sha Tin, had travelled like the seasoned campaigner that he is, and knew exactly where he was once again.

Making little attempt to disguise the place the horse holds in his heart, Doumen said: "He has been a fantastic horse and part of our lives for so long. To have had the sire Double Bed, to have bought his mother, bred and foaled the offspring and for him to turn out as he has been a chance in a million, a once in a lifetime event."

Jim and Tonic, who has never been out of the first three in all his starts at Sha Tin, has shown that he retains all his enthusiasm this season with a brave victory in March in the Dubai Duty Free (Gp I), where he outbattled Fairy King Prawn and Sunline in one of the races of the season, and Doumen is again confident of a bold showing from his seven year old. " Jimmy is such an intelligent horse, and he is a little bit clever now too. When he is out in the morning he doesn't do much, when you work him he doesn't give you everything, he still has another gear, which he keeps for his races. He is a horse who has little niggling problems from time to time, so we don't race him too often, but that has helped to keep him going for so many seasons."

Jim and Tonic has made five starts this season, winning or finishing second in all his starts, most recently being runner up to China Visit in the Group II Prix du Rond-Point on Arc Weekend at Longchamp. "The ground was soft that day, and he had a lot of ground to make up in the straight. He found it difficult to really quicken on that ground, but was only beaten a length. It's a funny thing, when he is at home, he comes out a little stiff in the mornings, but here at Sha Tin he stretches out quite happily."

Jim and Tonic did no more than jog on the all weather track in company with his stable companion Foundation Spirit (Vase), of whom Doumen added, "I was a little worried as to how he would take the travel as a three-year-old, but he seems fine this morning. He's had little problems this season, but he is a good horse. He's well in himself now, and he will have the chance to prove himself here."

Terre a Terre, who provided the up and coming provincial French trainer Eric Libaud with his first Group I winner when taking the Prix de l'Opera on Arc Day, stayed in the Quarantine Barn, pending her trainer's arrival in Hong Kong, while Robert Collet's Choc Ice, winner of the E. P. Taylor Stakes (Gr.1) at Woodbine, Canada, on her last start had a jog on the all-weather.

Of the other Hong Kong Cup contenders, Bach had a steady canter on the all-weather in the company of the Sir Michael Stoute trained pair Daliapour (Vase) and Tough Speed (Mile), while the Singapore challenger Bocelli, who tore off a shoe at trackwork yesterday, appeared to show no ill effects in a similar canter today.

Andreas Suborics was again on board Silvano, who completed a routine canter on the Arlington Million and QEII Cup winner, before saying: " I'm happy with the horse. He looks well to me, and he is moving well, and I think he is in the same sort of form that he has been all season. He hasn't run a bad race all year, and in Australia he was just a little short of peak fitness, but still was there with a chance on the home turn before he got tired."

Hawkeye, who was fourth last time out in the Dubai Champion Stakes at Newmarket when trained by Aidan O'Brien, beaten four and a quarter lengths, will make his first start for his new owner/ trainer connections Gary Tanaka and Michael Jarvis on Sunday. The son of Danehill has looked well all week and he had another exercise canter on the all weather track.