Purton ticks off one record, gets back on track for another
Australian jockey collects a quartet at Sha Tin, surpassing his own mark for stakes in a season
Zac Purton did not win the race everyone expected him to win at Sha Tin yesterday but he banked four victories and sufficient prize money to set one new Hong Kong record and put himself back on track for another.
With four firsts, four seconds, two fourths and one fifth from his full book of 11 rides, Purton added HK$7,987,100 to his 202223 season stakes, lifting his term’s tally to $235,054,535 – HK$65,020 more than the mark he set in his 2018-19 campaign.
Purton’s wins aboard Super Bonus, Stoltz, Circuit Mighty and Red Lion improved his 2022-23 season haul to 142, which means the Australian jockey requires an average of two victories a meeting across this term’s final 14 cards to equal Joao Moreira’s mark of 170 from the Brazilian rider’s 2016-17 campaign.
“It’s been a good day with four winners, but it’s also been a little frustrating with four seconds, so I was thereabouts. The big race showed it’s not [Romantic Warrior’s] favourite distance, but he tried bloody hard – he was gone at the 600m,” Purton said of his $1.20 runner-up conveyance in the Group One Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m).
“Coming into the straight, Money Catcher headed me, and I thought [Romantic Warrior] was going to drop out. To his credit, he tried as hard as he could.
“We had no choice but to lead. We played our cards, and he would’ve won the race if he hadn’t got taken on half a mile out. It was just not his distance.”
Purton’s up-and-down day began on a high when Pierre Ng Pang-chi’s three-year-old novice Super Bonus transported the five-time champion jockey to another milestone – his 100th Sha Tin success this season.
Super Bonus made most of the running in the Pakistan Star Plate (1,200m) for Griffins, enjoying the extra furlong and racing around the turn after finishing third and fifth in this term’s opening two Griffin contests, both of which took place over the straight 1,000m.
Following race-to-race seconds on Hit The Shot and Fingers Crossed, Purton made it four wins from eight rides aboard Francis Lui Kin-wai’s Stoltz when they won the Class Two River Verdon Handicap (1,000m).
Trust Me finished fifth in a Class Four event before Purton was triumphant on another galloper with whom he has an excellent record, Manfred Man Ka-leung’s Circuit Mighty, who is three from three with the Australian pilot after bagging the first section of the Class Four California Memory Handicap (1,400m).
It’s been a good day with four winners, but it’s also been a little frustrating with four seconds
JOCKEY ZAC PURTON
Finally, sandwiched between minor cheques for Simple Hedge, Romantic Warrior, Supreme Lucky and Helene Feeling – although Danny Shum Chapshing’s Group One runner-up earned HK$2.64 million for beating all bar Russian Emperor – Purton won the Class Two Vengeance Of Rain Handicap (1,400m) aboard Red Lion.
Eleven-time champion trainer John Size quinellaed the Vengeance Of Rain Handicap with Red Lion and Erimo, and then extended his title advantage over his former assistant, Frankie Lor Fu-chuen, to 10 when Bundle Of Charm won the Class Three Oriental Express Handicap (1,200m) under a front-running Alexis Badel ride.
Size, who like Purton is seeking his own piece of Hong Kong racing history, leads Lor 65-55 as the Australian attempts to become the first handler to win a 12th championship in the city.