John Size has taken 37 meetings of the season to get there but the 12-times champion has found the top of our trainer ratings with his inevitable mid-season surge.
A 13th title win is, of course, still a work in progress on the official table but the Australian's double on Sunday at Sha Tin lifted him to joint-sixth with 20 wins on those rankings and now just seven victories off the frontrunner, Danny Shum.
Size languished, as usual, towards the tail of the field in the first six weeks of the season but his impact has been as predictable as it has been relentless since his team started to win in November and he has now scored 15 wins from the last 100 runners out of the yard - leading the entire field by that metric.
His lead on our ratings is a narrow one so he will need to keep bringing in winners to maintain that position but we have seen this before.
Last season's champion, Francis Lui is also giving signals that he is not out of contention again. Every trainer has a dry run during the HK season but Lui, like Size, has already had his and is now back on track, while some of the others near the top of the ratings have not yet hit their trough.
There is little change on the jockey ratings, with Zac Purton consistently Punching hom wins to maintain a rating clearly over 20 - a high bar to maintain - as he runs down Douglas Whyte's all-time win record.

(Note, apprentice jockey ratings reflect performances with their allowance "built in". As their claim reduces and they compete on a more equal footing, we expect their rating to deteriorate unless they are top class riders.)
​These ratings are updated regularly and designed to reflect current form but with past figures also putting a brake on hot-streak performers or uplifting a long-term quality player having a quiet run.