INFOGRAPHIC: CLICK HERE TO RELIVE 'MAGIC MAN' JOAO MOREIRA'S RECORD 145 WINNERS IN 2014-15

There were moments in the aftermath of the final meeting of a remarkable racing season when racegoers at Sha Tin highlighted the difference between the can-do Hong Kong fan and fans elsewhere.

Back in 2005-06, we had HK$60 billion so HK$108 billion is quite a turnaround - not just great for us but for the community
Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges 

As jockeys made the traditional drive down the straight, standing in the starting gates and tossing toy horses to the crowd, Hong Kongers were showing they could use their umbrellas for good and not evil, turning them upside down and open to catch all the Able Friends and Aerovelocitys they could hold.

A true Hong Kong finish to a record-breaking season off and on the track and Joao Moreira's charge to win the day's Jockey Challenge after Gerald Mosse had already ridden four winners typified the Brazilian's year of living astonishingly.

"Molilai! Molilai!" they screamed as the winner of 145 races this season came out to accept his trophy, to a heady mix of what seemed samba music spiked with a fresh take on Star Wars. Champion awards, announced at a function on Friday night, were handed out again for public consumption, this time with the jockey and trainer championships added and a lovely touch as John Moore's mother, Iris, joined the seven-times champion on the stage.

For most of the day, at a time he would otherwise have been signing off as a trainer under the old retirement rules, the season's champion was signing autographs like a rock star.

"I feel like Mick Jagger," laughed Moore, before he was reminded that he is still too young to be Jagger, who turns 72 in a fortnight.

Streamers in the crowd popped on cue but not all the corks on the podium were obliging, with club chairman Simon Ip Sik-on and Able Friend's owner Dr Cornel Li Fook-sum wrestling with their bottles before the bubbles flew, Formula One style.

Prizes handed out, plushies thrown, it was on to more prosaic observations on a year of record turnover, up 5.8 per cent to HK$107.9 billion, the biggest season aggregate crowd for 12 years, up 2.6 per cent to 2.07 million, and a record tax payment.

"Aside from the business point of view, look at how Hong Kong horses performed on the world stage - nine of 10 internationals here in Hong Kong and Group Ones in three other countries," said Jockey Club chief Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges after a final day of HK$1.758 billion turnover.

"Back in 2005-06, we had HK$60 billion so HK$108 billion is quite a turnaround - not just great for us but for the community. Our tax contribution was a record at HK$12.3 billion, from racing alone, and, but for that, income tax would be 35 per cent higher in Hong Kong."

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