The Audemars Piguet QEII Cup is the premier middle distance horse racing feature of the Hong Kong spring, run over 2,000m in late April. First run in 1975 to commemorate a visit by Queen Elizabeth to Happy Valley, it became an international race in 1995 and was promoted to international Group One status in 2001. With big global owners like Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Godolphin (Overbury, 1996), Team Valor (Irridescence, 2006), Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum (Archipenko, 2008) and Sunday Racing (Rulership, 2012) sitting alongside locals like Larry Yung Chi-kin (Oriental Express, 1998), Ronald Arculli (River Dancer, 2004), Johnson Lam Pui-hung (Ambitious Dragon, 2011) and Cheng Keung-fai (Designs On Rome, 2014), it is a race that has achieved prominence on the world stage.