The Audemars Piguet QE II Cup at Sha Tin cannot come quick enough for French trainer Francois Doumen, who will be represented in the HK$14 million second leg of the World Series by Jim And Tonic, his globetrotting gelding who is having his fourth run in the race.

"Cocktail" as the evergreen eight-year-old has been fondly nicknamed by his Sha Tin fan club, heads back to Hong Kong after a rare low-key performance on his last international assignment in Dubai.

That five lengths seventh to Terre A Terre on paper suggested perhaps that Jim And Tonic's advancing years were beginning to catch up with him.

However, Doumen has little time for that theory and compelling evidence to support his case has come to light since Nad Al Sheba.

"We found that Jim And Tonic raced with a displaced vertebrae. That and the fact that he was short of top condition after general health problems over the winter meant he was not in top condition. We've sorted out the vertebrae problem and I think you'll be seeing a different horse in Hong Kong", Doumen said.

Jim And Tonic has a record second to none in the Audemars Piguet QE II, winning it in 1999, and following that with seconds to Industrialist and Silvano.

Doumen was speaking at the Normandy farm of his training operation, adjacent to the stud run by his wife Elizabeth and birthplace to the horse that holds the European prize money record - Jim And Tonic's current bank balance is about ¢G3.5 million (about HK$39.2m).

On the subject of Jim And Tonic's retirement Doumen said: "When the time comes I have a golden paddock waiting for him. He will tell us when it is time to retire and I won't let anything serious happen to him. He has been a marvelous servant."

France could be doubly represented in the AP QE II with Jim And Tonic joined by December's Hong Kong Cup third Terre A Terre. The participation of one of the best race mares in the world rests on her powers of recuperation from Dubai.

"I want to run her, it all depends on how she comes out of the Dubai race," Eric Libaud, who trains the dual Group One winner, said.

Libaud has enormous faith in the daughter of Kaldounevees, but even he was pleasantly surprised by her brilliance in the Dubai Duty Free under Christophe Soumillon. And there could be better to come. "She was fully prepared for the Duty Free but even so, it was her first run of the season."