We see enough of the European and British visitors that come and go among the jockey ranks to recognise when someone is getting it right enough to make a real go of riding here and Italian jockey Umberto Rispoli fits the bill.
Alas, we are possibly only going to see him during the European winter as he has a contract to honour in France, but he would certainly gain acceptance if he decided to stay on a longer term basis.
The toughest things to grasp here for riders from the western hemisphere are the importance of a clean break from the start and the slow-motion mind games of not riding the volume of winners a jockey might be used to racking up at home.
The first is a matter of racing style - the emphasis on a good start in racing here is easier to handle for riders from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as the style of the racing here is similar to racing in those jurisdictions.
In Europe and Britain, a fast break doesn't have the same priority for jockeys due to different tempo patterns of their racing.
We still recall one top British galloper coming here for the Hong Kong Sprint, in the days when it was still a straight 1,000m race, and the trainer agreeing that his horse did have a habit of starting significantly slowly even when he won, and not thinking it was going to be an issue. Sure enough, out he came two lengths behind the field and that was that - by the time he got going, the rest of the field was almost in the unsaddling area.
Rispoli has really understood and taken the bull by the horns as far as getting out of the gates, giving him more tactical options in races.
The second part of the equation is attitude and whether that's easier or more difficult to fix depends on the jockey.
As we've also seen with Neil Callan, the jockeys that roll with the inevitable punches here and accept the dry spells with equanimity and determination are the ones who ultimately get results.
That's an aspect that applies to everyone, wherever they are from, and times can look pretty forlorn at times. Zac Purton might be a live chance to give Douglas Whyte a race for the championship this season but he has been here for five years, had his share of self-doubts and been down plenty of dry gullies in that times.
Although the French have done particularly well collectively in Hong Kong, not every European is a proper fit but we see in Rispoli all the right qualities to make an impact.
