IN a territory where political developments affecting Hong Kong and China are meat and drink to the media, one Jockey Club appointment last week passed off relatively unnoticed.
A colonial anachronism finally ended with the news that the next top man at Jardines would not become a Steward of the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club on the departure of Nigel Rich.
In a move totally unthinkable less than a decade ago, Larry Yung Chi-kin, whose ties are a lot closer to Beijing than Britain, takes over from Rich.
One of the hoary old stories about the ranking hierarchy in Hong Kong in days gone by had it that real power here descended through the Hongkong Bank, the Jockey Club and, finally, the Governor, who sometimes got a word in. There was more than a morsel oftruth in it, too.
The Hongkong Bank and the Jockey Club have remained - in their top positions - interlinked for decades and it must be said the Bank has provided the sporting body with some quite excellent chairmen of Stewards.
Professional racing came about largely through the far-sighted insistence of Sir John Saunders, who spent enough time away from the Queen's Road headquarters of the Bank to ensure that the darker days of ''shamateurism'' were safely marshalled off into the pages of history.