The Jockey Club appears to be looking at a vintage edition of the Longines Hong Kong International Races on December 13, with foreign participation likely to be well above last year's turnout.

Last year, the Jockey Club raised prize money for the international meeting and the reward was just 23 foreign runners at the showpiece, the lowest since the meeting went to four international races in 1999.

The club had not had 30 foreign runners - once the standard base line - since 31 lined up in 2009 but this was still a long fall from the record 36 visitors which ran in 2004 and carried off all but Silent Witness' second Hong Kong Sprint.

That fall-off has been a recipe with multiple ingredients. One was the increased competition for elite horses, including the emergence of Champions Day in the UK and The Championships in Sydney. Another, probably the realisation that Hong Kong-trained horses are pretty tough to beat on their home ground, especially at the Mile and Sprint courses.

Another again was surely the sluggish American dollar and therefore our currency versus Australian, European and British money.

The club's decision to raise the stakes was a response to both factors one and three and had little effect but this year the club is getting a perfect storm of circumstances to attract more participants.

Other currencies have dropped away significantly from peaks three or four years ago, when the Aussie dollar bought eight and-a-half Hong Kong bucks - that is now about five and-a-half - and the Euro bought 11 and-a-half Hong Kong dollars and is now less than eight and-a-half. Even 12 months ago, the Euro and Aussie were more than 20 per cent stronger than now.

That makes even the previous stake money look pretty good and the increases even better, especially it seems to Australian connections - although we will see about that when the dust settles.

The largest HKIR team from Australia and New Zealand came in 2000 when eight landed, although not all of them got to the races.

The best representation from that part of the world since is four - in 2009, when All Silent, Apache Cat and Scenic Blast turned up expecting a tug o' war between themselves for the Hong Kong Sprint and went away empty handed. This year there have been twice that many talked up as likely visitors, although talk is cheap and starting to wane in favour of the softer domestic options.

The competition for horses this year is just as strong but some of that competition, Australia's pursuit of European horses for its Melbourne spring carnival, is working in Hong Kong's favour as more trainers and owners consider Sha Tin the next stop after Moonee Valley or Flemington.

That situation is open to change as horses cool down and trainers reassess in the aftermath but there are certainly indications that a number of horses from Ireland, Britain, Germany and France, which ran well in Melbourne, will be on their way here.

And then there's the state of the local horses. The Milers are embarrassed for riches - even take away Able Friend and there would still be a decent argument to say the trophy stays home.

Milers apart though, there is a beatable look about the home team in the other divisions, although we have no doubt they will put up a good fight, as ever.

The sprinters will be solid and worthy but Aerovelocity is missing, Peniaphobia is still to show he is back to his best, other stalwarts are ageing and still others are yet to really put down markers as the real deal. We certainly have no Silent Witnesses or Sacred Kingdoms amongst them unless they are extremely well-hidden.

In the middle distance ranks, three horses have held the front line in domestic and international Group Ones at 2,000m here for the past 18 months and Military Attack isn't getting any younger, Blazing Speed is a mature galloper holding his form but past the point of getting any better and Designs On Rome has yet to return from surgery.

It's doubtful last Sunday's Ladies' Purse turned up any new, legitimate Hong Kong Cup challengers and then there's the Vase where, Dominant's circumstantial 2013 win aside, the locals are regularly slaves to the best of the foreign visitors and have been for two decades.

So, not only are the international events worth considerably more money than ever before in Aussie, European and British money, they are on the way home for some who should be suited.

And, perhaps more to point, you can throw on top of those incentives that they look winnable as well - three of them anyway.

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Finding Hong Kong reps for IJC night not cut and dried 

Another intriguing aspect of international week is building around the Hong Kong representatives for the Longines International Jockeys' Championship night.

Last year was easy. Zac Purton represented Hong Kong as the sitting champion and Joao Moreira as the championship leader but it isn't as cut and dried this time around.

Moreira obviously takes the role as bauhinia-carrying champion but the club will select the second rep according to the pecking order on the table behind him and that is very competitive at this stage.

After Sunday's racing, Brett Prebble and Douglas Whyte are neck and neck for that spot on 13 wins, another win back to Neil Callan and Karis Teetan and Purton is another two wins adrift of them after a fairly slow start to his term.

The local representative also has a trick to it as apprentice Jack Wong Ho-nam is the leader in that race with eight wins ahead of Derek Leung Ka-chun (seven) and Keith Yeung Ming-lun (six) and Wong is getting enough support at present to see him holding that lead.

There is precedent for juniors to contest the IJC - the most recent in 2002, when five-pound claiming apprentice Way Leung Ming-wai was the representative as the leading local rider at the cut-off date. Leung managed a second in one of the legs of the then three-race contest before, unfortunately, his last ride was scratched.

But don't get too excited Jack. The club hurriedly "clarified" the rules in 2006 when another apprentice, 10-pound claimer Marco Chui Kwan-lai, was looking the likely local rep, and officials issued a statement that only senior riders were eligible for selection.