While the jockeys' championship has had none of last year's thrilling rollercoaster ride to an outcome that was never certain until the final day, the main protagonists can lay claim to having performed even better this time around and Brett Prebble's three-timer yesterday took him close to confirming it.
Douglas Whyte is already well past the 91 wins that scored him the championship in 2007, but Prebble, who finished with 81 wins last year, is also getting close to eclipsing that 'personal best' this term.
Twin victories for David Hall on Bravo Bravo and Ankh Morpork built on a solid start in the second with Majestic Heart for Manfred Man Ka-leung, with Prebble's tally now 78.
'It's ironic that I could end up with a better result than last year. I was jumping on and off more horses last year than I ever have in my life and pulling out all the stops, doing whatever I could to try to win the championship and the strain of it sent me off to the summer break exhausted,' Prebble said. 'This season I've taken it easier and tried to do more work on helping trainers to target horses for their races and it seems to have worked out at least as well and without the stress.'
The Ankh Morpork win saw him coming back in distance from 1,800m last start, despite his form in Australia having seen him tried right up to the 2,500m of the Victoria Derby.
'It happens everywhere that horses are three-year-olds and get tried as stayers for the sake of classic races because you only get one chance,' said Hall.