Takeover Target kept alive his hopes of claiming a $1.5 million bonus for his owners when he won the King's Stand Stakes on the first day of the royal carnival at Ascot last week.
He finished third in the weekend's Golden Jubilee Stakes after fatigue set in during the final 400m. Les Arcs reeled in the leader to win with Balthazaar's Gift second.
Hong Kong Jockey Club's senior handicapper, Ciaran Kennelly, said Takeover Target would still be the most fancied runner when the sprint series, won last year by Hong Kong-based Cape of Good Hope,
"It is not easy to travel halfway around the world and win so I believe it was a great training achievement [to win the King's Stand] especially as it was the trainer's first runner abroad," Kennelly said.
"He would start favourite in Japan and Hong Kong on present form and it would be great if another horse from Asia or Australia could win [the sprint challenge]."
Janiak said the horse was almost certain to compete in the July Cup in Newmarket, near Cambridge, before traveling to Japan in September.
He said it was highly unlikely Takeover Target would run in the first of two Japanese races, the Centaur Stakes, as it would be run on a tight track with a curved section run anti-clockwise.
Instead Takeover Target would be directed towards the Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse.
"Well go and have a look at [the Centaur] before we decide. But a tight track and running the wrong way, I'm not sure about that," Janiak said.
After the biggest week of their lives, Takeover Target and his training team awoke yesterday morning to enormous praise from the English press, despite their failure to repeat Choisir's 2003 Ascot sprint double.
The Telegraph reported Takeover Target's third-placing in the Golden Jubilee Stakes was "the most honourable of defeats for the little, white-nosed hero from Queanbeyan, whose engaging young jockey and grizzled old trainer/owner Joe Janiak have won many friends this week."
The Sunday Times said: "It was highly appropriate the handsome redevelopment, which has turned Ascot into a modern international racecourse fit the match the best in the world, was anointed by a horse and trainer of such obvious and impressive humility."
Takeover Target is likely to be ranked the world's No1 sprinter in July or August, taking over the top spot from US dirt runner Silver Train.