While a couple of the biggest names among the city’s expected assault on next month’s Longines Hong Kong International Races didn’t leave their barns on Sunday, another galloper who’s been there and done it flashed enough in the Group Two Jockey Club Sprint (1,200m) to suggest he’s far from a spent force.

While reigning Group One Hong Kong Cup (2,000m) champion Romantic Warrior and two-time Group One Hong Kong Mile hero Golden Sixty are cooling their heels until the big day on December 10, last year’s Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m) star Wellington began his defence with an impressive third behind Lucky Sweynesse in his first run since June.

Trainer Jamie Richards has done his best to cool any expectations since acquiring Wellington from the retired Richard Gibson, with the four-time Group One winner now a seven-year-old and entering his fifth Hong Kong campaign on the back of a luckless trip to Royal Ascot in June.

“I’ve always been a little bit guarded around where he’s at and how he’s going because I don’t know the horse very well, but I am learning about him all the time and he seems to be in good shape,” Richards said.

“He’s just probably a little bit rusty five months without a race, I just thought he lacked a little bit of conviction, but all in all I thought he ran really well.

“Hopefully, he’s got a bit of improvement in him for three weeks’ time. If the pace is on, there’s a bit of pressure and [Lucky Sweynesse] doesn’t have everything his own way, then hopefully he might be there ready to pounce. Racing is a funny thing.”

Lucky Sweynesse was the hard-luck story of last year’s Sprint, finding heavy traffic in the straight before finishing sixth behind Wellington, but Manfred Man Ka-leung’s five-year-old appears on track to atone after returning to the winner’s circle on Sunday.

Lucky Sweynesse is looking to complete the set by winning the four Hong Kong Group One sprints within a calendar year, but regular pilot Zac Purton did say after the weekend’s victory that “he’s not quite there yet … he’s going to need to be better next time”.

The need for improvement was very much the theme of the HKIR lead-up meeting, with Caspar Fownes not exactly inspiring any great confidence when suggesting that if Group Two Jockey Club Cup (2,000m) winner Straight Arron could “run in the first four or five on international day, it’s a job done really.”

Of course, Romantic Warrior will return to headline the city’s middle-distance division and some of those who finished behind Straight Arron will improve with a step up in trip for the Group One Hong Kong Vase (2,400m).

Golden Sixty will be first up since April when he targets more Hong Kong Mile glory, but Purton knows Group Two Jockey Club Mile winner Beauty Eternal needs to find more improvement to match the three-time Horse of the Year after he turned the tables on known front runner California Spangle in a contest that favoured those off the speed.

“It was good to see him do that, I was hoping he had that type of performance in him and he was going to be able to take the next step,” Purton said. “But he’s got to take another step up from that to be in it next time.”

Just who Hong Kong’s big guns will lock horns with on international day will be confirmed on Wednesday, with a dozen or more gallopers from Japan expected to set their sights on Sha Tin, along with runners from the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and maybe even the United States.