The name of Robert Collet, trainer of QE II Cup hopeful Lethal's Lady, is a byword for quantity and quality - his bustling Chantilly stable usually finishing each season among France's top 10.

His name flashed onto the international scene in 1986 when he sent the brilliant Last Tycoon to lift the Breeders' Cup Mile in the colours of his long-standing patron, Robert Strauss.

Collet notched up another significant success across the Atlantic last season with his wife's Choc Ice, and went close with another useful filly, Lethal's Lady, runner-up in the Group One Matriarch Stakes at Hollywood Park.

The daughter of Rudimentary tries her luck on the other side of the world on April 21 in the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup, the second leg of the World Series.

Collet believes Lethal's Lady, who finished close behind the other French challenger Okawango in her QE2 warm-up last month in the Prix Edmond Blanc at Saint-Cloud, would have a better winning chance if the race was over 1800 metres rather than 2000m.

"The distance is the end of the world for her; I'd be more confident if it was shorter. But having said that, 10 furlongs at Sha Tin should be easier for her to stay than the same trip at Chantilly."

Collet is not a trainer to regard his geese as swans, so when he travels abroad it is worth sitting up and taking note. Lethal's Lady has already made one trip to Asia this year, running second for Davy Bonilla behind Palace Line in the Singapore Classic at Kranji.

"She takes the travelling in her stride, so I've got no fears in that department," said the man currently heading the trainer's table in France.

Summing up the prospects that his four-year-old can follow Silvano on the QE2 roll of honour, Collet said: "Lethal's Lady has a serious shout; the only question mark, as I've said, is the distance."

Collet is a no-nonsense type of operator who enjoys nothing more than rolling up his sleeves and getting down to the tricky business of training winners - whether on the domestic front at Longchamp or Chantilly or further afield, as in the case of his latest overseas mission to Sha Tin.

Lethal's Lady is a typical hard-working Collet sort ¡V she has faced the starter 22 times, making her one of the most experienced in the field.