Now the first jockey to win eight championships, he took over from Tony Cruz in December as having won the most races in Hong Kong and, in May, became the first to 1,000 victories. Whyte finished three short of his record 114 wins, but with the best strike rate he has ever registered at 19.5 per cent wins to rides.

And this despite losing as many meetings through suspension or other absences as he had missed in the previous three years combined. Virtually all there is left for Whyte is more of the same, but that's something of which he never tires and does better than anyone.

Brett Prebble declared, after giving Whyte a scare in 2006-07, that the effort had been a strain and he would back off a little, but the irony was that the Australian still wound up second for the third time and with his best season tally on 83 wins.

Once again, a highlight was the resurgence of the Chinese rides since the weight allowance, introduced three seasons ago. They lifted last season's tally of 198 wins to 211, and their percentage of the races run from just over 27 per cent to almost 30 per cent - a far cry from 2004-05 when they collectively won 64 races. Howard Cheng Yue-tin led the way with a personal best as three locals finished in the top 10. Felix Coetzee and Darren Beadman fought a tooth and nail battle for third, with a July 1 treble nailing it for senior citizen Coetzee, while Glen Boss (34) and Zac Purton (29) had good foundation seasons and Mark du Plessis arrived without fanfare but got down to business well and has a platform on which to build.

If there was a disappointment, it was the French who, paradoxically, enjoyed a great year at Group One level - Gerald Mosse with Scared Kingdom and Olivier Doleuze on Horse of the Year Good Ba Ba - but Doleuze's 67 wins last season shrank to 36, Mosse's 56 to 38 and Eric Saint-Martin's 35 successes became 20.

Saint-Martin's result reflected missing a whopping 24 meetings with suspension, but Doleuze's eight days was average, while Mosse's only ban was his reasonable and permissible measures charge last month, which will not take effect until the new term.

Disappointed at the frequency of suspension, Anthony Delpech found no reason to stay after Vengeance Of Rain's retirement, Kevin Shea simply left for a better job and Simon Yim Hin-keung gave it up due to recurring back problems.

Christophe Soumillon blazed away elegantly with his midseason cameo and Shane Dye, a controversial fixture for seven years, struggled with fitness. He left for Australia declaring he would return but injury woes have continued and the way back for Dye is unclear.