Whyte duelled with Dye for months before drawing off for a win that will look easy in the history books but it's some measure of the Durban Demon's form that both Dye and third-placed Felix Coetzee have had personal best seasons.

'It certainly gets harder with each win and the competition was tough all round this time,' Whyte admitted. 'But I try to remain consistent and level-headed. Pressure can get to anyone, anytime and it's one of the biggest factors in a jockeys' championship stretching out over a season. But the more pressure, the more competition, the better I love it.'

Still three shy of the 90 wins he needs for his own best season, the South African has already enjoyed a landmark year.

'I'm leaving myself a bit of a mountain to climb on Sunday but whether I get those three or not, it has been a fantastic season. Winning the International Jockeys' Challenge for Hong Kong was terrific after watching visitors take it every other year.

'And reaching 500 Hong Kong wins was something I'm very proud of,' Whyte said. 'I wouldn't say any particular race stands out because they are all special in their own way, and when you are focused on a championship, every win takes you one step closer to that goal, whether it's a Class Five or a Class One.'

When Whyte reached his 500 with Members Glory on a messy midweek night this month, he was still well short of the win record for a foreign jockey but at least Basil Marcus' 671 wins doesn't look impossible.

'I might quietly eye a record like that but in the end it's a product of how I'm doing day to day anyway,' Whyte explained. 'If you start to set unrealistic goals . . . if I was to say, 'Hey, I want 100 winners next year', then I might find myself riding too eagerly or doing things I wouldn't normally do.

'Thinking about records can interfere with your short-term focus. If I do my job right and concentrate on just riding a winner, then records come along.'

Most top sportsmen are their own harshest critics, so how did D. Whyte ride in 2002-03? 'Yes, there were rides that I look back and say I got a hundred out of a hundred but I would rather not spell out which - because, first, it's not my style and second because there were some that I look back on and I got a zero,' Whyte laughed.

And, as ever, the thing anyone else takes for granted in a jockey's life is the discipline and pressure off the track.

'In the break, I'll be doing as little as possible. Back to South Africa, enjoying a few glasses of red wine with friends, spending lots of time with my family and eating whatever I want. Completely switching off,' said Whyte, who maintains a strict diet during the season.

'It's an uphill battle that comes with the job. But when the season is over, mentally and physically it's important to let go or you'll end up in the madhouse. I'll put on a few pounds and it will be hard work to get fit again but that's OK - if you don't let yourself go some time, something has to break. Nobody should expect to keep that pressure up all year round.'

Commenting on his not infrequent practice of getting off a winning mount to ride another he thinks has a better chance in a particular race, Whyte says: 'I haven't been able to get on and off horses quite the same way this year but I have to give apologies and thanks to the owners of horses I did jump off at times and who were kind enough to let me get back on. It's never easy making decisions like that and along the way someone is always going to be upset. Actually, with all this talk about cloning I've been thinking maybe I could clone myself - that would make my job easier.'

Just the sort of news to put a rival right off his summer break.