So the inaugural Hong Kong-Macau Trophy has been and gone. The task for both clubs now is to analyse what was positive about it for each of them.
News services throughout China, we believe, reported smilingly on the 'brothers playing nice' but this column is hard-bitten and cynical enough to suggest that the warm and fuzzy joys of seeing co-operation between the Macau and Hong Kong jockey clubs is insufficient to justify interport races.
Benefits need to be more obvious, and the Macau Jockey Club reaped a few. For a start, morale at Taipa gets a boost from the win, something Hong Kong did not stand to gain, regardless of results.
Macau racing - having won with the five lengths' start at the weights - will now be seen as substantially more worthwhile than it was a week ago. Not logical, but a good outcome.
Importantly, these races will, over time, establish a benchmark between the clubs and allow easy assignation of international ratings to Macau horses. In turn, that will allow them greater access to international racing opportunities.
Between the lift in profile and the greater access to the world, encouragement now exists for Macau owners to import more serious horses.