The final Group One of the season, the Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) has probably become better known recently for surprise defeats than repeat winners but it has plenty of the latter and Blazing Speed promises to be another today, reports Racing Post in Hong Kong.

Races at this distance often throw up odd results as it is so seldom used in Hong Kong, with only three races a year over the trip, and the Champions & Chater's position in the calendar is also culpable.

Often the season's best-performed horses arrive at this day for their final run of the season and right at the end of their tether after some tough Group One battles along the way. Thus, we have seen the likes of Designs On Rome and Ambitious Dragon toppled in the last few years as odds-on favourites and, before them, Vengeance Of Rain and Viva Pataca were both bested in this after tough seasons that included a trip to Dubai.

But there have been a number of multiple winners of the race too as the scarcity of 2,400m races also means that the same horses run well again and again. River Verdon won four consecutive Champions & Chater Cups, Viva Pataca almost did but for that defeat at long odds-on in 2008.

Blazing Speed (Neil Callan) maps to get the right run but will be on every radar this year instead of being 25-1 and unrated as he was in 2014. That attention isn't usually a good thing and will likely play a role in how this race is run. All his big wins have come sprinting hard off moderate speeds - he has never had his ideal trailing run in a fast run race - but an alternate climate will probably be presented today.

With only eight runners, the pace is the most interesting part of the race.

If John Moore's overmatched frontrunner Same World led and dawdled like he did in the QE II, that would suit Blazing Speed but wouldn't suit Moore's Helene Happy Star (Joao Moreira) or John Size-trained Khaya, so they might not allow that to happen.

Even Helene Super Star (Douglas Whyte) could be a potential leader, so the race looks lively early but Moore, regardless of who else pitches for the front, surely wants to see Helene Happy Star making the running at a strong pace, as per the Queen Mother Memorial Cup last start, rather than being beaten for turn of foot.