For once, it was a year when the horses themselves took centre stage. Our new world champion Vengeance Of Rain, the great Silent Witness and a more humble but oh-so-admirable warhorse called Cape Of Good Hope gave Hong Kong every reason to be proud.
Vengeance Of Rain's claims to championship status crept up on us. One minute, he's a really nice horse who had won the Mercedes-Benz Hong Kong Derby, but no better than Lucky Owners, who had taken the classic 12 months earlier.
Then, he stepped up one more level in the Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup, seeing off a strong international challenge that included grand South African galloper Greys Inn, already a multiple Group One winner at home and a Group winner during the Dubai Racing Club's carnival.
After one more win, a hard-fought victory in the Champions & Chater Cup at 2,400 metres, Vengeance Of Rain went to his summer quarters as the season's acknowledged champ in the middle-distance and stamina categories.
His planned trip to Australia was aborted, due to quarantine issues, and instead trainer David Ferraris focused him exclusively on one race - the $18 million Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup on December 11.
Not only did he focus, but Ferraris fixed his gaze with a Superman intensity that ensured there was only one result possible. He declared his confidence to the betting public and despite being pitted against a high-class international field, they supported Vengeance to a man. He went off an odds-on favourite and duly obliged (above).
The QEII and the HK Cup are the first and last legs of the World Racing Championships, which gave Vengeance Of Rain a unique opportunity to win a world title without once leaving the comfort of his home environment.
