Hugh Bowman has made the tough call to ride My Wish over Hong Kong Derby (2,000m) hero Invincible Ibis in the Group One Champions Mile, with superstar jockey James McDonald replacing him on the latter in the HK$24 million feature.

Despite guiding the Mark Newnham-trained Invincible Ibis to an emphatic victory in last month’s Derby, Bowman sided with stablemate My Wish after his fast-finishing second to Lucky Sweynesse in Monday’s Group Two Chairman’s Trophy (1,600m).

“It was a tough call. I had to choose one and I just thought My Wish might be a little bit more seasoned for this task at this point in time – that’s the bottom line,” Bowman said.

“Bearing in mind, Invincible Ibis only showed that he’s up to that level three weeks ago. Prior to that, realistically you wouldn’t have had him in the conversation.

“He’s come and run a peak performance and he’s going 2,000m back to 1,600m. I’m not trying to downplay him, I just had to make a call and my gut tells me that at this stage, My Wish is a better ride.”

Newnham was thrilled to secure McDonald’s services for the Champions Mile and said Bowman also played a role in the booking.

“They pretty much organised it among themselves. If you’ve got two of the world’s best, you can’t complain,” Newnham said.

“I think the relationship between James and Hugh – Hugh’s here sort of helping him out with Romantic Warrior, so if he can warm the saddle on Invincible Ibis, it’s probably a fair swap.”

Invincible Ibis burst on the scene with four consecutive wins – including two over 1,600m at Sha Tin – before making his presence felt in the coveted four-year-old series.

After running sixth in the Classic Mile, the son of Hellbent closed impressively for second to Stormy Grove in the Classic Cup (1,800m) before delivering Newnham the biggest success of his training career by comfortably winning the Derby.

“It was a hard race, but he’s come through it well,” Newnham said.

“What he’s got to do now is do it against the older, more seasoned horses. My Wish ran very well in the race last year, running fourth. It will be his last race of the season, but it will help toughen him up for next season when he’s got to take on these horses more regularly.”

Bowman’s bid for back-to-back Champions Mile triumphs, having booted home Red Lion 12 months ago, received a significant boost when My Wish stormed home to run a short-head second on Monday.

“I wasn’t surprised by that. He didn’t win, but the performance was good enough to be a winning one,” the Australian ace said.

“He’s only a small horse – you can’t sort of bully him around the racecourse, he’s just got to be left alone to deliver his best. But he showed that he can and I think he’s on track for probably the best run of his season, actually. If he gets the right set up, he’ll certainly be there in the finish.”

Bowman started his association with My Wish last month when he got the call-up to ride him in the Group One Gold Cup (2,000m), in which the son of Flying Artie ran fourth behind Romantic Warrior.

With Romantic Warrior and Ka Ying Rising expected to start hot favourites in the other two Group Ones on FWD Champions Day, the Champions Mile will be the most open of the elite-level features on April 26.

Japan’s four-time Group One winner Jantar Mantar is the early favourite in overseas fixed-odds markets.