Caspar Fownes says Sunday’s Group Two Sprint Cup (1,200m) is still on the table for Kurpany ahead of the five-year-old’s run in Wednesday night’s Class One Silvermine Bay Handicap (1,200m) on the all-weather track at Sha Tin.

Fownes has high hopes for Kurpany, who has lifted his rating from 62 to 110 with five wins from his past 12 starts, and the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) on April 24 looms as the gelding’s grand final for the 2021-22 season.

“He’ll run Wednesday and we’ll just see how he pulls up, there’s a good chance he might back up this weekend but if not he’ll run on the 24th anyway,” Fownes said.

“He deserves it, he’s got to a 110 rating so he deserves his chance to see what it’s like at Group One level. There’s not much between the sprinters in Hong Kong, there’s probably three really good ones and the rest are just OK.”

A winner of his only start in Ireland pre-import, Kurpany’s first four wins in Hong Kong came at Happy Valley before a shift to the dirt last start resulted in more success.

Alfred Chan Ka-hei was in the saddle for that last-start victory on January 30 over the same course and distance as Wednesday night’s contest and the five-pound claimer retains the ride.

“He’s in good form and he’s ready to go to the races, he’s drawn five so he’ll get his chance and I’m trying to give Alfie another winner,” Fownes said.

“He was impressive last start and you take the five pounds off and he’s in with a good shot. Obviously a couple of horses meet him a little bit better from the last time because it’s pretty much the same bunch of horses, but he’s going to be very competitive.”

Czarson, Duke Wai and Red Desert crossed the line behind Kurpany in his last-start win and they are preparing to resume hostilities on Wednesday night, while there is another galloper in the field with a nomination for the Chairman’s Sprint Prize in the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Majestic Star.

Elsewhere on the all-dirt card, Fownes is hopeful he can send departing Australian jockey Daniel Moor out on a high note with Daily Beauty, who backs up in the Class Five Cafeteria Handicap (1,650m) after finishing seventh over the turf mile at Sha Tin on Sunday.

“He was very unlucky on the weekend but typical, I’m trying to give Daniel Moor a nice ride and he cops gate 13,” Fownes said.

O’Sullivan targets all-weather meeting at Sha Tin with Duke Wai and Apache Pass

“I wish he was back on the grass because he loves a bit of sting out of the ground but maybe a wet dirt track, you never know – he might like it. He’s fit and well and handles the dirt as well.”

Daily Beauty is one of two rides for Moor at his final Hong Kong meeting before he returns to Australia to be with family this weekend, with his other coming aboard Benno Yung Tin-pang’s Star Of Red in the Class Five Clear Water Bay Handicap (1,200m).