HK$250 million man Purton’s four-timer puts sixth HK title in touching distance

Zac Purton could clinch his sixth Hong Kong jockeys’ championship next weekend after his Sunday four-timer at Sha Tin extended his lead over Vincent Ho Chak-yiu to 70 wins with 76 races left this term and elevated his season’s prize money beyond HK$250 million.

Purton’s twilight triumphs aboard Ka Ying Victory, Packing Bole, Gummy Gummy and Flying Ace lifted his win tally this campaign to 155 – 13 fewer than his 168 personal best and 15 short of Joao Moreira’s 170 single-season record the Brazilian set six years ago.

Furthermore, the four firsts, two seconds and two fifths from Purton’s 11 rides – eight on the back of favourites – earned HK$3,679,650 for their respective connections to make him Hong Kong’s first quarter-of-a-billion-dollar jockey in a solitary campaign.

The best of Purton’s four victorious efforts in the saddle was his performance aboard David Hall’s Flying Ace in the Class Three Lung Hang Handicap (1,200m).

“Tactically, it was a tough decision,” said Purton of his patient ride on the lightly raced galloper on the comeback from knee surgery. “We’d have liked to have gone forward. However, from the wide gate (11), we bit the bullet and put our faith in his ability.”

Purton topped and tailed his Sha Tin four-timer aboard Hall-prepared gallopers as the Australian trainer saddled his second consecutive hat-trick of winners after his Wednesday treble at Happy Valley.

Hall praised Purton’s calm execution of their pre-race strategy for Flying Ace from his bad barrier.

“Flying Ace went back from the gate. Zac navigated a great passage through, and he really showed what he could do. He’s always had the potential,” Hall said.

“Unfortunately, he had knee surgery, which we thought was a clean operation, but then he was continually lame, and we couldn’t find what the problem was. He had X-rays, scans, all sorts of things. Anyway, we put him back into work, and he’s come good.”

Purton and Hall combined to take out the first event on the 11-race card when Ka Ying Victory won the Wo Che Plate for Griffins (1,000m) on his belated debut.

“He went to the races once as a colt and got it all wrong,” said Hall of Ka Ying Victory, who misbehaved badly in the barriers before his scheduled first start on April 9, which they had to abandon.

“But I’m sure he learned from it – a broken nose and his testicles out – so he learned his lesson quickly.

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“There’s a good chance he’ll run again. The Griffin races are probably not going to get any stronger, and I don’t think 1,200m would be a problem for him.”

Sandwiched between the successes of Flying Ace and Ka Ying Victory was Hall-conditioned Aca Power’s Class Five Sha Kok Handicap (1,200m) win under Luke Ferraris, the first of the rider’s two triumphs.

In addition to Purton, Hall and Ferraris, Frankie Lor Fu-chuen celebrated multiple wins. Lor’s double, courtesy of Looking Cool in the Class Four Sun Tin Wai Handicap (1,600m) and Sauvestre in the Class Two Lek Yuen Handicap (1,400m), moved him to within six wins of John Size in the trainers’ championship with eight meetings to go.

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