It seems like the racing world has been tipped upside down, or at least has become smaller.

In this topsy-turvy new dynamic, Hong Kong-based riders head down under on a day off, and on the following day Australia’s finest come and spend a Sunday afternoon at Sha Tin.

And even though Joao Moreira seems to have been left out of the loop of late, could the growing culture of the “Group One pinch-hitter” become a key selling point when it comes time to keep the Magic Man stationed at Sha Tin?

Hong Kong-based riders ran first, second and fourth in a Group One in Australia last weekend, and this weekend more than one-third of the BMW Hong Kong Derby field will be ridden by overseas jockeys flown in for the day.

All the while, Moreira has not-so-quietly watched it all unfold as he sets about rewriting record books domestically – but he too will rejoin the jet-setting jockey squadron of bounty-hunting, horse-back mercenaries.

The Brazilian will head to Melbourne on Saturday to ride Chris Waller’s Brazen Beau in the Newmarket Handicap and he is rumoured to be at the centre of a tug of war at the upcoming autumn carnival (yes, we still call it that) in Sydney, with plum rides being thrown at him from all directions.

Brett Prebble’s win aboard Wandjina in the Australian Guineas last Saturday, where he held off old rival Douglas Whyte on Alpine Eagle, was the eighth Group One win on foreign soil by a Jockey Club-contracted rider aboard a non-Hong Kong-trained horse in the past 12 months, while the “fly-by-nighters” have had an impact here as well.

Australian Tommy Berry has been the most deadly, starting with his first ever overseas trip where the then 21-year-old got his passport stamped at Chek Lap Kok, caught a taxi to Sha Tin racecourse and promptly won the 2013 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Military Attack, before adding a triple Group One success on Designs On Rome last season.

It’s this type of hit-and-run mission that seven jockeys will attempt this Sunday at Sha Tin, with five to be legged up in the Derby and Berry a possibility to make it six if first reserve Savvy Nature gets a run.

The Derby is a great race, but the presence of Tye Angland (Romantic Touch), Hugh Bowman (Helene Happy Star), Bernard Fayd’herbe (Golden Sleep), Ryan Moore (Got Fly) and Christophe Soumillon (Obliterator) riding alongside the local stars makes the HK$18 million classic look more like the ultimate international riders challenge.

Even though lacking an American, you would be hard pressed to find a jockey series with a better 14 than that – and to think Prebble, doesn’t have a ride.

In the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup on the same day, Soumillon retains the ride on Gold-Fun after flying in to win the Chairman’s Sprint Prize last month, while Berry (Dan Excel) and Moore (Divine Calling) also have rides in the 1,400m event, with Wayne Lordan coming to ride Irish ivitee Gordon Lord Byron.

Flying in a jockey for a big race is nothing new, particularly in the “retained rider” culture of Europe, where the relative close proximity of racecourses allows it, but the frequency with which Jockey Club-contracted riders are heading to Australia’s rich carnival days seems to be on the increase, and the strike rate is astonishing.

Australian trainers certainly seem more receptive to the idea – as reported in the Australian press today, nine of the 39 Group Ones run in Australia this season have been won by foreign-based riders.

It seems inevitable a job offer will come for Moreira from overseas – surely it isn’t just busted billionaire Nathan Tinkler who can see the Magic Man’s ability. At one stage Tinkler was flying Moreira to Australia for Saturday meetings from Singapore in the heady days of Patinack Farm.

And if Godolphin et al aren’t interested in Moreira, why aren’t they? He gets 10-out-of-10 for being humble and well behaved, so there’s none of the character issues that so often go hand in hand with his type of freakish ability. He rides light and has become expert on the dirt and as his experience in Hong Kong has shown – where he has gone from careless-riding problem child to good-behaviour poster child in the space of 12 months – he adapts quickly.

There are a couple of groups who aren’t particularly keen to keep Moreira here at all – rival jockeys, of course, and professional punters, who must be struggling to extract any value out of the Magic Man’s seemingly heavily overbet mounts, but are getting killed because he just wins anyway.

After all, by its very nature, “magic” can’t be bottled and has a way of not being able to be quantified for the purposes of being placed into an algorithm.

For the club, Moreira’s presence must equate to a net positive turnover-wise, and if his strike rate continues there could be further savings in not bothering to print full form – just publish a list of what numbers Moreira is riding so we can cut to the chase.

Of course, there is the flipside, too. It seems many leading overseas riders aren’t too keen to come and fight over the scraps that are left after Moreira, Zac Purton and Whyte take their share, with that trio riding more than 41 per cent of the winners this season.

The “Whyte factor” once was thought to keep potential rivals away, but the “Moreira factor” must be even scarier.

All things considered, if the Jockey Club wants the best riders then Moreira is top of the list, even if he is at least partly to blame for the top-level jockey shortage week-in, week-out.

Something else on the horizon is the second part of the commingling era, where Hong Kong bets into overseas pools and it won’t hurt to have a few familiar faces riding at simulcast events.

And now that  Hong Kong-based riders seem to be on speed dial for Aussie trainers, the potential pocket money to be earned on a Saturday afternoon could keep Moreira here a little longer – even if his overwhelming presence keeps others out.