It does the overall image of Hong Kong racing little good when jockeys well known in their countries of origin are forced to return home before their contracts end.

So where do the faults lie? Are the jockeys not good enough? Are trainers and owners not discharging their obligations? Does the Jockey Club make insufficient effort to enforce what should be binding agreements? Carter, who was a dual champion apprentice in England, had his final rides on Saturday and suffered from a lack of stable support in the final couple of months of his shortened stay.

Romero, who was a major name in America several years ago, never adapted to the aggressive style of riding in Hong Kong and was not seen to advantage in some key early season races.

He opted out quite quickly when he realised that he was not destined to make any impact here.

McKeown was a surprise choice for Australian trainer Geoff Lane.

A successful rider on the northern England circuit, it was difficult to see him readily make the transition from Catterick, Redcar and Nottingham to Sha Tin. Why Lane, who would surely be expected to know so much more about Australian racing and riders, signed an English jockey in the first place was one of the season's more bizarre moves.

But the three trainers involved, with the backing of their owners, signed the retainer agreements presumably knowing exactly who they were getting.

If not, they certainly should have. It is rather more important than buying a tin of soup and discovering it's past its sell-by date.

The point, however, is that these riders came here with season-long agreements, were licensed on that basis by the Jockey Club and are now just a forgotten footnote in local racing history.

If agreements can be so easily made and so simply broken, then something, somewhere, is amiss with the system.

What is clearly required is a much stricter policing of the scheme, a reduction in the number of retainers and a clear warning that, once entered into, agreements cannot be simply torn up.

It is virtually certain that the Jockey Club will limit retainers next season and that is definitely desirable.

It would also make sense if a trainer accorded the right to retain a jockey was required to have at least 90 per cent of owners' support behind his chosen rider. And the Jockey Club should close certain loopholes where trainers can put up visiting jockeysor local riders in preference to their stable jockey.

There should also be a much closer scrutiny by the Licensing Committee of the credentials of proposed stable riders - bearing in mind the very real demands of professional riding here.

We need a much tighter, better controlled retainership system . . . and quickly.

SATURDAY'S Sha Tin meeting got the weather it deserved - gloomy, wet and generally miserable. Just like the card.

It seems a programming disaster that the Saturday meeting immediately prior to the Hong Kong Derby should feature a clutch of low-grade races that produced minimal excitement.

The Jockey Club are rightly making a major bid to whip up enthusiasm for the Derby which is, after all, the most important domestic race in the calendar. And they will succeed because there are few, if any, racing jurisdictions around the world who put ona better show than the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club.

But it should be remembered that what happens on the track is paramount and to move firmly into the Derby countdown with such a lacklustre meeting as we went through on Saturday was, to put it mildly, unfortunate.

DESPITE the attentions of those who decide on what races go where, Saturday's Double Trio dividend was a handsome, if bemusing, $222,451.

The first leg was the 10-runner Lane Crawford Cup where lack of runners should have immediately decreed its unsuitability for the popular exotic bet.

Given the overall lamentable quality of the card, it was difficult to come up with a high class race for the important fourth event but they might have been better advised to use either Race Two or Race Seven, both of which were declared with full fields.

While it does not do to be impolite to sponsors, the over-riding concern must surely be for the punter. Saturday's freak DT dividend does not take away from the fact that 10-runner races should not be involved in this particular bet.