One of the regular irks for those in the business of selling horses to Hong Kong owners is the weird obsession of local owners with the size of horses. For some reason, it has become ingrained in their minds - or those of their ubiquitous adviser friends, whose input is not to be taken lightly - that big horses are better, no matter what the reality might be.
It's hard to know where this idea took on gospel status but international time and a good-sized herd of visitors always brings some examples of how horses - and in this case they have to be good gallopers to get invited in the first place - come in all shapes and all sizes.
One would go a long way and see a lot of racing before encountering another little girl like Vallee Enchantee, the 2003 Vase winner tipping the scales at a pony-sized 815 pounds, who was placed again the following year.
While she was probably at the extreme end of the scale, the most recent international meeting had food for thought on the matter within a more regulation range.
Trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre prefaced the Vase by calling Daryakana potentially 'a great filly' and the unbeaten three-year-old kept her record intact when coming from last.
Her performance might have been towering, but the filly herself certainly isn't - weighing in at only 941 pounds - and the French in general showed the fallacy of the big-is-better syndrome.