Sunday's action at Sha Tin produced another griffin performance to get excited about, with Engineman landing the 1,200-metre Lane Crawford Corneliani Plate in exciting fashion and clocking a time to match.
The facts are simple: despite scoring in a fashion that left no doubt there was more to come, the Ivan Allan-trained sprinter clocked a time just 0.3 of a second faster than Danzighill had when winning the Class One Lane Crawford Cup later in the afternoon under a 22-pound lighter burden.
Of course, understanding the true merit of a time performance isn't just about direct comparisons of just two races at the same trip.
Sure, it is a good starting point and one that immediately draws attention to a potentially exciting performance, but it can be misleading. So what if one contest ranks a far superior time performance than another if the reference race was won in a pedestrian time? The time and weight difference of the two heats at the weekend translates to a 17-pound superior winning effort in the griffin race than for Danzighill in Sunday's feature race.
But is that a true indication of a quality sprinting performance by Engineman or simply a reflection of a particularly poor time for the Lane Crawford Cup? As is usually the case, there is some truth in both explanations. A winning time of one minute and 10 seconds was certainly nothing special for a Class One race on fast ground with Danzighill carrying only 113 pounds.
Danzighill has a previous best Topspeed rating of 72 to his name, but Sunday's win is worth a time rating of just 54. The moderate 24.3 seconds first sectional (the griffin race produced a first split of 23.9) provided the main reason for a relatively poor overall Topspeed rating.
In contrast, Engineman improved seven pounds on his previous best to clock a smart 71 Topspeed rating. That level of rating is useful in its own right but considering the manner of victory promotes the Basil Marcus-ridden winner as an even more exciting prospect.