Happy Together is how Zac Purton would like to be in Richard Gibson’s company

Happy Together is how Zac Purton would like to be in Richard Gibson’s company in the minutes following Saturday’s Class Three Coloane Handicap (1,600m) at Sha Tin.

Of Purton’s eight rides, Beauty Eternal is guaranteed to attract the most external attention as John Size’s galloper leads the home team against three visitors in the Class One Hong Kong Macau Trophy (1,400m).

But if Purton, who clawed his way to the top of the Brisbane, Sydney and Hong Kong riding trees through being his own harshest critic, has an assignment on which he is focusing more than any of the others, it would be the one aboard Gibson’s Happy Together.

“I’ve ridden him two times now, and I’ve given him two bad rides. Hopefully, I’m due to give him a good one,” said Purton, who has a second and a fourth to show for his couple of efforts on Happy Together.

“We’ve drawn a really bad gate, so I don’t know where we’re going to be in the run. I’ll see how the track is riding on the day and maybe change things a little bit, but I’m due to give him a chance, ain’t I?

“Two starts ago, he travelled strongly – too strongly – and I found myself in an awkward spot because I was trying to manage him instead of riding the race.

“Last time, the hood went on, he relaxed a lot better, and he gave me a good ride, but when Alexis [Badel aboard the winner, Powerful Wings] took off, I wanted to get on his back. He failed to respond and pick up when I needed him to, and then I got caught in that position where I was pushed off the track.

“It might have worked too well, but he needed to relax if we were going to get the best out of him.”

Whereas Purton found faults in his own performances, he did not knock Beauty Eternal even though he was a beaten favourite in the Hong Kong Derby (2,000m).

Beauty Eternal bounced back to winning ways when he contested a Class Two event over 1,400m on his first post-Derby appearance, and Purton remains a big fan of the four-year-old gelding despite him finishing behind Voyage Bubble and Tuchel in the classic.

“He’s done a really good job this season. He’s not let us down. He’s turned up every time,” said Purton of Beauty Eternal, who has won five out of seven.

“Last time, coming back from the Derby distance, he took quite a while to accelerate and get into top gear, and he only just got there on the line.

“This time, with the extra weight, hopefully we can get into it earlier and help him with the distance.

“He hasn’t had an ideal prep. We had to rush to get him to the Derby, then he had to be freshened up to come back to the 1,400m last time. The way he got to the line it looked like a mile might be his best distance, but here we are again at the 1,400m.”

Purton’s Wednesday treble at Sha Tin lifted his win count this term to 132. The champion jockey is 38 victories adrift of Joao Moreira’s single-season record with 19 meetings remaining, but he is not confident of rewriting the history books.

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“I know if you look at the numbers – the amount of winners I’ve ridden, the good winners I’ve ridden and the horses I’ve ridden – you’d probably look it and say I’ve had a good season or an excellent season, but I feel like I’ve been grinding and I haven’t been going as well as I would’ve liked,” Purton said.

“A few trainers I thought I might get a bit more support from haven’t really got behind me, so it’s a little bit frustrating. I’ve had a lot of bad gates, but that’s Hong Kong – you’ve got to deal with what’s thrown at you. I want to be going better than I am.”

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