When the rest of Hong Kong's elite gallopers step out at the international prelude meeting on Sunday at Sha Tin, one key name will be missing, but this year the mystery about Glorious Days is also absent.
The locally trained horses which make up the Jockey Club Cup, Jockey Club Mile and Jockey Club Sprint will be the same group sent out on December 14 in the hometown defence of the four internationals.
Last year, it looked somewhat unorthodox when trainer John Size elected to tackle the Longines Hong Kong Mile first-up with Glorious Days, since no horse had ever won any of the four events first-up for any significant amount of time.
Size was constantly asked by the media to reiterate his thinking, but the trainer is happy to be excused from justifying himself this time.
This campaign, the fact that Glorious Days has not run since his brave but comfortably beaten sixth to Just A Way in the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo in early June comes as standard.
"It might have looked a bit unusual to some people last year, but it worked. He won the race, so it shouldn't look unusual to do the same thing this time," said Size.
"He's a year older, but he's always been a good horse fresh and everything seems to be normal with him in training - and as far as I'm concerned, normal is good. As far as I can tell, he's the same as he was last year at the same stage."
Glorious Days' public appearances before the Hong Kong Mile will be limited to barrier trials again and Size is treading in his own footprints as far as those are concerned.
"He trialled last year on November 15 and 29 on the way to the race on December 8, and with the race run six days later this year he trials six days later as well," Size said.
Joao Moreira will ride Glorious Days in Friday's trial but, presumably, will be committed to Able Friend for the international mile. "There's no decision at this stage on who will ride him in the Hong Kong Mile," Size said.
