Handfuls, head cases and a horse named Fat Choy Oohlala

In many sports, they say the game is something like 90 per cent mental and 10 per cent physical – and horse racing is no different. Even though thoroughbreds have a freakish aerobic capacity and circulatory system akin to a city’s water works – they can throw it all away in a sweaty lather of pre-race jitters and in-race misbehaviour.

Hong Kong racing seems to put the magnifying glass on everything – particularly jockeys, trainers and race tactics – but nowhere does horse temperament matter more in terms of racetrack success.

You see them every week in the imposing parade rings at Sha Tin and Happy Valley – horses trained up to the minute, but looking more nervous than a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

The monotony of training here and the lack of space leave many horses a shell of what they could be.