Where was the upside strategy of the Good Neighbour Policy on Sunday?
The policy, brought into the world originally by Hong Kong and Japan, is about showing respect for the domestic betting turnover of other signatories to the document.
Which is another way of saying 'keep your mitts off'.
But we have also been told that there is a positive aspect to the policy, designed in the hope of actually growing turnover between nations, since respect for turnover actually means 'keep your mitts off unless we co-signatories agree to cross-pooling'.
Or so we are told though we see precious little evidence of any will to start the ball rolling, even on a dream opportunity like the Sprinters' Stakes.
Make no mistake, the Japanese betting pool on a feature race dwarfs anything in Hong Kong. Two thirds of the meeting turnover goes into the main race, which can mean anything up to US$200 million bet on the feature.