Fairly early in this Sunday's meeting at Sha Tin should see betting turnover for the season slip past the HK$63.998 billion the Jockey Club took in 2006-07 and on target for a final figure in sight of HK$68 billion.
The figure stands at close to exactly HK$1 billion short of last season's total, most of which will be clawed back tonight at Happy Valley, and a rise year on year of 5.98 per cent.
Early in the season, with increases running at double figure percentages for the first handful of meetings, perhaps more might have been expected. But by meeting 20, the overall increase had dropped back to eight per cent and by meeting 40 to just over six per cent, and has stabilised at that level since.
The fallout effect from Australia's equine influenza crisis has to a large extent not materialised, with field sizes holding up strongly despite the fact that imports of new Australian horses were severely affected by a six-month ban.
With a direct correlation between field sizes and turnover, club officials had been holding their collective breath for the time late in the term when the established horses would be tiring and potentially less able to race as often.
There have been some meetings recently where full fields of 14 have been harder to find at Sha Tin, but they have been few. Only in griffin racing, a relatively minor portion of the calendar which often relies on Australian two-year-olds to build the numbers up, has the EI effect been more obvious.