Sunday at Sha Tin might have been focused on the international preludes, and they were spectacular in a number of ways, but the support races felt just like old times as John Size led in two winners of a type which has been fundamental to his success.
The bedrock of Size's seven trainers' championships in 13 seasons has been his ability to produce unraced horses in Class Four, mould them and shape them and see them yield three or four races in a season and Eroico and Contentment have that type of future stamped all over them.
Eroico we had already seen once when he was desperately unlucky to lose on debut at Happy Valley - another familiar Size pattern - but that experience woke him right up and he appreciated the move to the bigger track, did everything right and coasted home.
It didn't look the deepest of opposition but he disposed of them well, ran strong times - even allowing for the very fast track surface - and it was a great pointer to his future considering the son of Starcraft should be even more comfortable over a little further than 1,200m.
An hour later, Contentment was even more impressive putting away his Class Four opposition on debut. This race was not truly run, as evidenced by the fact that second, third, fourth and fifth home were the first four around the home turn, so coming from second last to win by almost a length took an awesome turn of foot.
In his trials, both in Australia and here, Contentment had been hard to read. He didn't jump out as some triallers do, but he looked to have some ability and also looked fairly laid back - the type of horse who might just go up a cog on race day under competitive conditions, and that was what happened. That attitude and talent is going to take him a long way in the coming months.
Size has had a relatively modest first couple of months to the season but both of these four-year-olds are going to play their role in taking him up a cog too.
