The shimmering mirage of imminent organised horse racing on the mainland continues to claim thirsty foreign victims, but there were those thinking aloud on Sunday about a potential flood of influential owners in Hong Kong from the same place.
The sand bags went up due to Divine Calling who trotted up in the colours of first-time owners Wei Yu and Liu He – vaguely described as “mainland” owners who had spent a lot of money (these things are never officially disclosed but a figure of A$2 million has been bandied about, rightly or wrongly) and got straight into a serious horse.
Divine Calling was also a special case as the first test of a role created at the Jockey Club in 2013 for former high-profile Australian owner Nick Columb to guide and assist so-called "mainland" owners with big coin to buy superior stock.
And by the looks of Divine Calling's win on Sunday, the job is right - he still has it all to do but looks a horse who can do it.
So we suddenly found ourselves among people suggesting these "mainland" owners would take over Hong Kong racing. After all, there must be millions of newly wealthy people interested in having a champion racehorse.
Is it true? Are they getting special favours? And why is mainland in quotation marks?
Last things first. The inverted commas are to indicate the airy fairy nature of the description, mainland owner.
Everyone knows you can't be an owner without being a Jockey Club member, of at least "racing member" status. And you must be a Hong Kong resident to be a Jockey Club member, right?
Wrong. The club scrapped residential requirements two years ago, which demanded at least 180 days a year here to be ruled a Hongkonger. With actual long-term Hong Kong residents spending more and more time in China, or elsewhere, running business interests, the club faced the looming reality this requirement could soon disqualify existing owners.
Many Hongkongers have a mainland background somewhere anyway. So the tag mainland owner is a bit fuzzy. There are even owners who have joined in through the Beijing Clubhouse who hold, for example, Canadian passports, to further muddy the waters.
The original, stated intention of the Jockey Club's Beijing Clubhouse was a members' club, like Sha Tin or Happy Valley. Swimming pools, gyms, bars, restaurants, accommodation - a home away from home for members who travel frequently to Beijing.
There are about 900 members of the Beijing Clubhouse, who have some hoops to jump through if they wish to progress to racehorse ownership in Hong Kong.
Of course, they undergo the same processes as anyone else, need to show serious business and property interests here and a real connection to Hong Kong and passion for racing.
The Jockey Club says it doesn't want remote owners, who will watch from afar and not really participate. Then there are more background checks before they move up to the racing member status that makes them eligible to enter the permit ballot.
From fewer than 20 of this type of racing members, we understand 12 have permits, but the club is in no hurry to expand this area of ownership, which would put more pressure on the already-long waiting lists.
It's no flood and whether we called it mainland or something else is open to debate, but there is now a certain section of membership, made up of high net-worth people coming via the Beijing Clubhouse pathway and who regard ownership at an elite level as a status symbol for which they are willing to spend proper money for proper horses.
Sydney signals hint at approach of Munce War II?
Things have been becalmed. Let’s face it, the early season tends to be about ... racing. And not even big racing, although some major names having have had a run and rising stars like Divine Calling and Beauty Only have stepped out.
We were robbed of our foreign distractions with Dan Excel’s Cox Plate getting it in the neck and Lucky Nine’s Sprinters’ Stakes bid becoming cast by quarantine accommodation more in line with a Japanese capsule hotel.
But, with commingling with Australia and New Zealand starting tonight, there is something behind the scenes to pique our interest. Are we looking at Munce Wars II?
Since we cancelled our home delivery of the Sydney Daily Telegraph some years after moving to Hong Kong – it was always late, and by then Kim Kardashian already had a different new, something, and the bachelor on the reality show had handed out his roses and the pet cat up a tree had already been rescued.
So it is only via Twitter, from some disgruntled bettors, that we found out the Daily Tele deleted its Hong Kong racing coverage last weekend.
Perhaps there was a shortage of space, an oversight? No, the implication is that Racing NSW executive Peter V’Landys calls the shots on what the Sydney paper runs regarding horse racing and wanted Hong Kong dropped.
Naturally, this was poorly received at Sports Road.
All the old acrimony resurfaced over V’Landys thumbing his nose at international racing agreements by, unilaterally, refusing to reciprocate an otherwise worldwide ban imposed by Hong Kong stewards on jockey Chris Munce in 2008.
None of that ill-feeling will come as news to anyone. Long after the Munce earthquake came and went, there were on-going tremors in a relationship between V’Landys and the HKJC that will one day be celebrated in song by Taylor Swift.
More recently, when Lankan Rupee’s connections seemed mustard keen on the Hong Kong Sprint, their sudden about face – even before a second surprise defeat which has his world champion crown up for grabs anyway – was rumoured to have come after pressure from Sydney officials even keener to see the sprinter again at Wimbledon – sorry, The Championships.
Not that it’s out of order to do your best for your own showpiece, everyone does that, including Hong Kong, but it was just another little niggle.
Where the latest manoeuvre is more interesting is in how it might affect TABCorp, Australia’s monolithic betting operator. TABCorp is part of Racing NSW directing Telegraph racing content, via the same contractual arrangements, but, unlike Racing NSW, it is about to embark on, yes, commingling on Hong Kong.
We can only imagine dropping Hong Kong fields and guides from the Tele would negatively effect TABCorp holdings on Sha Tin and Happy Valley. Watching with interest.
