Zac Purton hopes to capitalise on a potentially “vulnerable” Romantic Warrior when he seeks revenge aboard Voyage Bubble in Sunday’s Group One Yasuda Kinen (1,600m).

Outmuscled by Romantic Warrior in February’s thrilling Group One Gold Cup (2,000m), Voyage Bubble heads to Tokyo racecourse aiming to reverse the form on Danny Shum Chap-shing’s superstar under the guidance of the six-time champion jockey.

Purton is no stranger to experiencing top-level success in the Land of the Rising Sun, but the Yasuda Kinen is a contest he’s yet to crack from two attempts.

While the 41-year-old triumphed in the Group One Takamatsunomiya Kinen (1,200m) aboard Aerovelocity in 2015, in the Yasuda Kinen he has only managed sixth on the Tony Cruz-trained Beauty Only in 2017 and ninth aboard Fellowship for Paul O’Sullivan seven years earlier.

Purton, who arrives in Japan on Thursday, believes Voyage Bubble has the ability and versatility required to secure him his first win in the HK$21.6 million contest.

“He’s a pretty no-nonsense horse and he takes everything in his stride,” Purton said of Voyage Bubble. “I think it’s a suitable race for him.

“He’s got a good style where he can race on speed. He likes fast-run races and we’re not guaranteed to get that, but if that’s the case he can clearly handle that.

“He does a lot of things right and it’s not a vintage year. There’s no stand-out horse there at the moment, so it’s a good year to roll the dice and see how we go. Bring it on, let’s see what we get.”

Voyage Bubble recorded a breakthrough win at the top level under James McDonald in January’s Group One Stewards’ Cup (1,600m) and arrives in Tokyo off the back of a respectable third in the Group One Champions Mile on April 28.

Ricky Yiu Poon-fai’s star faces a host of local challengers alongside fellow Hong Kong galloper and seven-time Group One winner Romantic Warrior.

Romantic Warrior has been on the go since beginning his campaign in Melbourne in October and Purton hopes Voyage Bubble is well placed to take advantage of a potentially below-par effort from the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained six-year-old.

“Romantic Warrior has had a fairly tough season. He’s gone down to Australia and had to peak down there, then he’s come back to Hong Kong and had to peak a couple of times. He struck the wet track last time [in the Group One QE II Cup] when he had to dig deep and lift himself off the canvas to win,” Purton said.

“He’s jumped back on a plane and gone again so it’s a big ask for any horse to do that. He might be a little bit vulnerable at this stage in the season and hopefully we can capitalise if that’s the case.

“Voyage Bubble can run beyond a mile – he’s been good up to 2,000m – so the uphill straight and testing conditions [at Tokyo racecourse] shouldn’t be a hindrance for him.”

Voyage Bubble had his final piece of strenuous work ahead of Sunday’s contest with a gallop on the Tokyo turf on Thursday morning.

“I was very happy with him, he handled the uphill and downhill very well,” said Yiu’s head lad Lau Yan-kin. “He’s a smart horse, he changed legs when he needed to and he felt good. It was not a fast gallop, just normal for what he does.”