The injury-enforced withdrawal of runaway Jockeys' Championship leader Douglas Whyte from tomorrow's season finale at Sha Tin has thrown the focus onto the battle for second and intensified the intrigue surrounding the three-way tussle for Horse of the Year.
Whyte will be crowned top jockey for the 12th straight time tomorrow with 107 wins, but his bruised shoulder did not respond sufficiently to treatment and he will be a spectator for the second straight meeting as Zac Purton attempts to break fellow Australian Brett Prebble's six-year stranglehold as runner-up.
Purton holds a one-win advantage over Prebble (63-62), but is more concerned about whether Royal Ascot victor Little Bridge will be announced Horse of the Year at a ceremony after the meeting. Little Bridge's fresh-in-the-mind King's Stand win last month makes him a slight favourite for top honours, but a strong case can be made for Lucky Nine and defending champion Ambitious Dragon.
'Everybody is talking about the Jockeys' Championship situation, so I am aware of it, but whether I run second or third isn't the biggest of deals. It's not as if it is a battle for first and second,' Purton said.
'But I do hope Little Bridge wins Horse of the Year. He was the only Hong Kong horse to win an overseas Group One this season. It's not easy to do and that has got to weigh heavily in his favour.
'He also won three more times at home - two Group Twos and a Group Three - and there was no one dominant horse that stood up and said they should be Horse of the Year.'