Even if it is just for a brief winter stint, snaring Ryan Moore for a club jockey contract is a great coup for the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Whether Moore, or anyone else for that matter, really is the world's best jockey or not, he is currently the only man with a trophy carrying that description on it, and it is indisputable that he is one of the world's best in any case.
And his current standing in world racing should have sufficient clout to ensure Moore gets frequent, real opportunities from Hong Kong's notoriously picky owners and trainers - others might find that their reputation overseas counts for nothing here but people in Hong Kong have already seen enough good things from Moore with their own eyes to believe the hype.
At one level, adding Moore as part of a jockey colony already bursting with world-class riding talent will make the current group as deep as it has probably been for a long time, perhaps ever. And his presence will give more independent backing to the Jockey Club's tireless promotion of the worth of our jockey roster.
On another level, it's another layer of competition for Joao Moreira and Co, and our hope is that Moore is able to make the right fine adjustments to his riding to actually be a factor on a daily basis and not be suspended every third meeting.
No doubt a few sleepless nights will be had by chief steward Kim Kelly remembering Moore scything through the field at Happy Valley on Redwood Baby at the Longines International Jockey Championship night a few years ago.
Perhaps there were extenuating circumstances, perhaps, if you believed the man in the street, it was the old gentleman's agreement not to suspend riders invited for such a series. (By our reckoning, that gentleman's agreement should be a two-way street anyway, with the invited rider undertaking not to put stewards in the position of considering such action.)
There is a need for adjustment by any jockey coming here full time and finding it not only very competitive but at closer quarters than they might be used to at home and Moore won't have much time to make that adjustment.
The tighter the racing, the more every little inadvertent shift has the potential to cause interference and nobody struck that hurdle harder than Moreira in season one.
We don't doubt Moore is right up to the job in the competition department, but he can't be competitive if he's at home on the sofa when the races are run. The ideal would be to see him ride without interruption for the entirety of his six-week stint and really make a mark on the local scene.
Of course it isn't Moore alone being added to the Sha Tin jockeys' room and the French flavour is a positive. Without Gerald Mosse's retainership agreement in July, we would have been looking at a French-free jockey list, almost unforgiveable after the influence they've had here.
So, bringing a rising talent in Vincent Cheminaud is a plus and Richard Gibson has been suggesting that the well-performed Gregory Benoist would be suited to Hong Kong.
Apprentice jockeys on the right horse can dictate terms
Saturday's "10-pound quinella" on the all-weather, when Kei Chiong Ka-kei rode her first Hong Kong winner on Hearts Keeper to touch out Jack Wong Ho-nam (Horse Supremo) made for a good example of what is achievable with apprentices with the right stock under them.
And by "right stock" we are not discussing the ability levels of Horse Supremo and Hearts Keeper as much as their suitability for inexperienced riders.
Inexperienced jockeys still make plenty of mistakes on leaders - miss the break, go too fast or, just as often, too slow in the lead - and those mistakes can also be terminal for a horse's winning chance.
But it is still an easier assignment if all a young jockey has to think about is riding his or her horse, and not doing that while you're in the middle of a field and surrounded by vastly more skilled and more experienced jockeys plotting your downfall.
At least the way ahead is clear of traffic for an inexperienced 10-pound claimer on a leader, even if there are still tricks to getting home first, and their winning figures invariably bear that opinion out.
A huge proportion of the wins by 10 and even seven-pound claimers would be all the way victories. But what we see too often in Hong Kong, where some trainers and owners are too obsessed with the mathematics of the handicap ratings and not enough with the racing characteristics of their horse, is not claimers fitting with horses but horses being made to fit the claimers.
Often the red flag is hoisted when a 10-pound claimer is booked for a horse which is not normally a front runner, because today is obviously the day when that horse is about to be tried as a leader.
The common wisdom then becomes that, with the claim, the horse is so well handicapped that if it gets the lead it will keep going even ridden contrary to its pattern.
We see them booked for backmarkers, horses which are chronic start-missers and horses with bad racing manners that test even the top jockeys.
All because that claim is seen as the magical ingredient, tactics are moulded to suit the level of the jockey instead of the jockey's rides being chosen because they already fit that mould.
But Saturday's Class Four dirt sprints were different. Horse Supremo, in particular, is an extremely average racehorse but made for young riders with big claims.
Hearts Keeper might have had a few more strings to his bow at times gone by. Both Chiong and Wong played their roles correctly, finding their way to the head of affairs and slowing things down - now all some punters want to know is this: what were the non-claiming jockeys doing just allowing their juniors to dictate to them?
