It might not quite be the Olympics - but it's a pretty good place to start.
The Hong Kong squad for next month's Good Luck Beijing-HKSAR 10th Anniversary Cup three-day eventing competition was chosen after a final qualifying round at Sha Tin's renovated Penfold Park yesterday.
And for the 20 squad members named, that means a chance to be among the first to test out the venues to be used for the equestrian events at next year's Olympics.
About 20 riders from Britain, Germany, Australian and the United States are expected to take part in the Cup - Hong Kong's official Olympic test event which will be staged from August 11-13 - with the SAR squad competing mainly in the show jumping and dressage sections.
'It was a great day,' said Soenke Lauterbach, Hong Kong Equestrian Federation secretary. 'It went very smoothly, we had good sport. It was not only for the riders but for [the Olympic] volunteers - everyone learned a lot.
'The selection of the squad was from the whole past year in a way, but the special focus was on two [qualifying] events,' he continued.