Something strange happened at Sha Tin on Saturday – and it wasn't Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying having eggs thrown at him and being publicly abused. Apparently, that happens a lot.

It was something far more rare. Master trainer John Size was effusive in his praise of one of his winners and even seemed openly happy. Content with the state of the world and everything in it.

He even mentioned the word "love".

We weren't present, so can't be sure if he was choking up at the sight of the appropriately named Contentment winning his third straight race and bursting into BMW Hong Kong Derby calculations, but that's how we would like to imagine it. Perhaps Joao Moreira's contagious positivity is rubbing off on him.

"His next start will be on February 1. He'll step up to a mile and he's full steam ahead for the Derby," Size said as he wiped a single tear from his cheek (OK, we made that bit up). 

"Then it's a matter of whether he's up to it. His inexperience doesn't faze me and certainly won't worry him - lightly raced horses in big races, I love them.

"He looks less inexperienced every time and lightly raced horses often have fewer ailments physically and nothing in their heads to slow them down. They're still full of enthusiasm."

Anyway, taken aback, and flooded with emails wondering if Alan Aitken had got his Australian horse trainer "Johns" mixed up, we spent a rare Sunday off searching through the South China Morning Post archives looking for any similar quotes from the quintessential laconic trainer.

And then we just searched "John Size" and "love" on the Internet.

The only known reference to Size publicly stating his love for something is this. In the week before Electronic Unicorn raced in the 2001 Panasonic Cup and Size cemented his place as the Chinese God of horse training: "I love to work and I have enough work to keep me occupied."

So there you have it, thrilling stuff. The two things we can be sure Size loves are work and relatively untapped horses heading into big races. And that's all you need to know, really.

But before you go thinking he is boring, there are probably other things we can safely assume the 60-year-old loves - equine swimming pools, three-quarter pace trackwork gallops and wearing makeshift warm headgear in interviews on Racing To Win, for instance.

See, Size is something of an enigma. He is undoubtedly one of the best at what he does, but he is unlike any horse trainer in the world. A throw back to the old days. He doesn't give much away in an interviews, that's just his style, and maybe he doesn't go for hyperbole because, to him, everything is so damn logical, obvious and straightforward.

When asked how much money his horses had won midway through his second season he said, tellingly: "I've got no idea how much they've earned. My job is just to get them to the races, fit and well."

To him, it's a simple job, so why exaggerate?

Trainers love to over-state, or under-state, the ability of their horses - whatever is required at the time. Self-interest is usually the driving factor.

Take the trainer trying to keep a lid on expectations that quickly points to a weak field, kind draw and low handicap of his horse - sometimes it is a preemptive attempt to save face for the next time the horse steps out as hot favourite.

Or, conversely, a trainer who purchased a horse for an owner boasting with a touch of "I told you so" as he talks up his successful charge. A self-congratulatory pat on the back.

Or there's the rare circumstance of a horse needing ratings points to qualify for an upcoming big race. That might be the case with Contentment, a four-year-old who is now rated 82 and requires at least one more impressive performance to clinch a Derby start on March 15.

It is doubtful that prompted Size's (relative) outpouring of raw emotion, though.

For Size, this was the equivalent of Gwyneth Paltrow's overly long and teary 1999 Oscar's acceptance speech. Size's Hollywood equivalent is Clint Eastwood, and he even looks a bit like him - especially when he is doing a Dirty Harry impersonation and staring holes through media types looking for a bit of mindless filler.

Size's replies can be short and sweet. Once, when it was suggested barrier one was a positive for his horse – which had just box-seated and won – he pulled the old ‘answer a question with a question’ manoeuvre and shot back, "Is it?"

To Size's credit, he did go on to explain that often a low barrier means a horse has to work just as hard to fight to for a handy position. That's the thing, as hard as it might be to sit through, Size always makes sense.

Searching through some of the other classic quotes, this one stood out for refusing to play the ‘tell the media what they want to hear’ game: "Win more races. That's the plan if there is one," he said helpfully after a lower-grade win with a horse named Enthused (who, incidentally, Size resisted the Derby lure with. He was held back to sprinting and won the Group Two Sprint Trial before finishing fourth in the Hong Kong Sprint).

Still, Size is a veritable motor mouth and media darling compared to the National Football League's Marshawn Lynch, who said "I'm thankful" after his side's play-off win on Sunday while wearing what appears to be one of Size's neck warmers from trackwork. 

Nothing wrong with expressing gratitude, except Lynch said, "I'm thankful" to every single question as he strived to avoid another US$100,000 fine for not speaking to reporters.

And if Size thinks he gets the gold medal in the tight-lipped stakes, this is what Happy Lucky Dragon Win had to deal with in a previous professional life. Check out this work of art by rugby league player Darius Boyd. Ahh, the memories. Size's best horse Glorious Days could provide a more intelligent discourse than Boyd.

Of course, Boyd's mentor is coach Wayne Bennett, who has many parallels with Size, but first we would have to explain what the hell rugby league is to those who don't live in north-eastern Australia, a coal town in the north of England or Papua New Guinea.

A rough guide: Size and Bennett were both raised in country Queensland, are both all about the process and not the result, are both highly allergic to fools holding microphones and tape recorders and prone to one word answers to media. But, most of all, both are the absolute best at what they do and all-time greats in their respective fields.

With both there's a depth to their answers, if you are willing to hold your nerve through the blunt responses to dumb questions. There's no "BS", and when they do talk - like Size did on the weekend – it pays to listen.

For instance, the second part of Size's cryptic 2002 "there's no plan" quote included this tidbit: "I tend to think every experience is a good experience."

If so-called spiritual guru Deepak Chopra had said that it would be printed on an inspirational poster and trademarked by now.

So while he might be a man of few words, what would you rather read: a few words that make sense and that you can count on, or endless waffle?

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