Comanche Brave will be giving it his best shot when he faces the mammoth task of tackling the world’s best sprinter Ka Ying Rising in the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The Donnacha O’Brien-trained Irish galloper is yet to win in Group company, but he has been a consistent operator in the grade and heads to Hong Kong on the back of some career-best runs.

A winner at Naas four starts ago, he then rattled through the line to finish third in the Group Two Solonaway Stakes (1,600m) at Leopardstown before heading across to the Middle East.

First running third to Group One Champions Mile hopeful Strauss in the Listed Abu Dhabi Gold Cup (1,600m), he then ran another mighty race to fill the same position in the Group Two Turf Sprint (1,351m) at Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.

O’Brien’s travelling head lad Darragh Dwan has been with him throughout his overseas adventures and reports his four-year-old in rude health after making the long journey over.

“We’re delighted with him, he’s a brilliant horse to travel. He eats, sleeps and makes our job very easy. Temperatures here are fairly similar to the Middle East and he’s like us – we all like a bit of sun and heat on our backs,” Dwan said.

“It’s his first day on the track, so we just gave him a light canter for six furlongs to get him used to the track. We’ll just keep him ticking over this week – he did all his hard training back home and will be on the dirt all week.”

The big question mark surrounding Comanche Brave’s chances is the drop back in distance, with the son of Wootton Bassett plying his trade over 1,400m and the mile since a pair of 1,200m runs to kick off his career.

That does not concern Dwan, however, especially with his horse – who will be ridden by Oisin Murphy – in such good form. That said, his big worry is Hong Kong’s champion sprinter Ka Ying Rising, who he knows is going to be almost impossible to beat.

“I was in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia with him – we had a great experience in both places and he ran well in both, collecting a nice amount of prize money in the process,” Dwan said.

“Ka Ying Rising is going to be very hard to beat, he looks unbeatable really. That said, you never know in horse racing and we’re hopeful of another big run from him.

“It’s going to be a tall order to beat him, but it’ll be nice to see him running and see ours running against him; we’ll give it our best shot.

“He’s very versatile in terms of ground and trip – he travels very strong in his races and the six furlongs won’t be a problem. He’s quick up into his stride; it’ll all be a different kettle of fish over here but we’ll give it our best go.”