Friday's licensing committee meeting has not only to consider the licensing of jockeys for the second half of the season, but the thorny question of diversity that so often intrudes into simply doing the best available job.
We don't anticipate anything changes among the Chinese riders after half-time and the expatriate licences for the most part look predictable, but there are some gaps to be filled.
It is expected James McDonald will be licensed, the New Zealander's second placing in the Cathay Pacific International Jockeys' Championship in December sufficient to ensure he gets an invitation, and after that there seems some guesswork to how the roster will look.
Australian jockeys continue to compete well here since the racing is so similar in Hong Kong, and someone like Melbourne's Craig Newitt, light, strong and talented, would be an ideal candidate for a licence, however, that would further concentrate the riding pool.
Brett Prebble, Darren Beadman, Zac Purton and Tye Angland are all well established and Tim Clark is a big success in progress, who has done more than enough for an extension, but the Chinese-language media strongly resist having too many riders from one country and there does seem to be a push back on the concept of bringing more Australians at an official level, too.
But where does the club go now for a diverse line-up?
North American jockeys are a no, English riders are largely uninterested - though the whip-rule changes there last year and the fines and bans that followed brought a brief flurry of interest from UK-based riders looking for an escape plan - and name European riders appear only to be interested in a working holiday through the winter.