Rather than putting the riders under any more pressure during race meetings, the Challenge has merely formalised what competitive spirits they were already putting to work. The kind of jockeys who ride with any success in Hong Kong are competitive by nature anyway, but the Jockey Challenge has injected an extra impetus into their day by keeping an official score for the riders.

On the turnover front, the Challenge is making progress, with holdings climbing to around HK$5 million in the handful of meetings so far and a clear improvement coming about as a result of tweaking the bet cut-off time from 30 minutes to 15 minutes before race one. Once the bet is bedded down properly in its current format, what lies ahead is tweaking it further by moving the cut-off time a race or two into the day to bring a fluid market where the odds can change dramatically after a result or two.

What has been surprising though is that club officials say punters have shied away from the hot Jockey Challenge favourites, like Douglas Whyte, and the more popular wagers have been for longer-odds propositions.

It's most unlike Hong Kong punters to look away from the sure winners, but we wonder if that will change once Whyte and Brett Prebble have won probably 10 of the first 15 Challenges between them.