Zac Purton will continue his pursuit of Douglas Whyte\u2019s towering Hong Kong career record for the most wins by a jockey after surpassing Joao Moreira\u2019s mark for the most victories in a single season at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 July).<\/p>
Further cementing his status among Hong Kong horseracing\u2019s galaxy of stars, Purton eclipsed Moreira\u2019s 2016\/17 record of 170 wins from 710 rides with a quartet.<\/p>
Purton drew level on 170 with his 689th ride with success on David Hall-trained Ka Ying Victory and then secured the outright record with his 171st win at his 693rd ride with Manfred Man-trained Magic Supreme\u2019s victory in the Class 4 Arculli Trophy Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
Purton crowned a landmark meeting in style by adding two more wins, striking with Hall\u2019s Flying Mojito in the Class 4 Chow Silver Plate Handicap (1600m) and John Size\u2019s Helios Express in the Class 3 Philip Chen Trophy Handicap (1200m) to boost his tally to 173.<\/p>
Revealing he had ignored advice from a doctor regarding a foot issue at the start of the season, Purton finished the meeting with a total of 1,604 wins \u2013 a tally bettered only by 13-time champion jockey Whyte\u2019s 1,813.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Magic Supreme holds on for Zac Purton.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
At 40, Purton plans to continue his Hong Kong career indefinitely, fitness permitting.<\/p>
\u201cMy body will tell me how far I can go. Obviously, I will come back next season and strive to ride as many winners as I can and as long as I continue to get the support, then obviously my position will remain here for as long as that takes,\u201d he said.<\/p>
\u201cIf we have another good season next season, I won\u2019t be too far off that (Whyte mark.) It\u2019s a little bit realistic (to break Whyte\u2019s record) but at the end of the day, I\u2019m getting a little bit older. It\u2019s not as easy to get out of bed every day and I have listen to what my body tells me.\u201d<\/p>
Paying tribute to the owners, trainers and stable staff, Purton said: \u201cIt feels very satisfying. It\u2019s been a long season. At the start of the season, I got told by a specialist I needed to put my foot in a moon boot for three months and I wasn\u2019t allowed to put any weight on it \u2013 here I am, I didn\u2019t follow that advice, obviously.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019ve worked hard and it hasn\u2019t been smooth sailing all of the way. I sort of lost my focus through the mid-stage of the season with plenty of things that were going on. Once I cleared the fog and got my mind back onto the job, I was behind in the run chase there, I needed something to happen and fortunately for me, the ball started bouncing my way and it\u2019s just continued to roll since.<\/p>
\u201cI appreciate all the support I get. The Club giving me the opportunity to come here, the owners and trainers who support me and also the people behind the scene \u2013 the mafoos, the track riders who prepare the horses and the people who give me the chance.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s a team effort from everyone. I can stand up here and collect the accolades but I can\u2019t do it without everyone else who plays their part\u2026without their patience and support, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to get to these numbers.\u201d<\/p>
In an incredible display of sustained dominance, Purton\u2019s colossal season reached a peak with a seven-timer at Sha Tin on 9 October and has also included two quintets, eight four-timers and 18 trebles.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”24175″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Francis Lui marched to a career-high of 64 winners in a season with a quartet of emerging talents \u2013 Sweet Briar in the Class 4 Chan Trophy Handicap (1200m) for Lyle Hewitson, Golden Samurai for Vincent Ho in the Class 4 Stevenson Cup Handicap (1400m), Call Me Dandy under Matthew Chadwick in the Class 3 Ip Jug Handicap (1200m) and Silver Sonic in the Class 3 Chairmen\u2019s Day Handicap (1400m) for Harry Bentley.<\/p>
Hong Kong International Sale graduate Call Me Dandy earned a ISG Bonus of HK$1 million, while Silver Sonic collected a HK$1 million PP Bonus.<\/p>
\u201cIt\u2019s a good day,\u201d Lui said. \u201cSome of them had good barriers and that made a difference. Hopefully there will be more wins before the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>
Alexis Badel notched his 200th Hong Kong victory when Adios (115lb) overwhelmed Frankie Lor stablemate Rewarding Together (121lb) and Courier Wonder (135lb) to land the Class 1 Swaine Cup Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m so happy. It\u2019s quite a surprise reaching 200 wins in Hong Kong \u2013 I didn\u2019t really pay attention,\u201d said the Frenchman, who landed the 2023 BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) on Voyage Bubble with a superb tactical ride.<\/p>
\u201cI thought I was miles away from 200 wins, but that\u2019s pretty cool. I think that\u2019s a great achievement \u2013 it\u2019s very, very special. It\u2019s always good to win a trophy race and Frankie has always been good to me since I arrived in Hong Kong and I\u2019m grateful for his support.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m constantly trying to improve and I\u2019m very happy today.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Alexis Badel brings up his 200th Hong Kong win.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Hall celebrated a treble with Ka Ying Victory, Lucky Missile and Flying Mojito, giving the Australian a career-best season of 42 wins.<\/p>
Ka Ying Victory\u2019s success in the Purves Quaich Plate (1200m) for Griffins provided the Australian with his 40th success of the season, matching his previous best set in 2007\/08, before Lucky Missile\u2019s triumph in Class 5 Wong Cup Handicap (1600m) pushed the Melbourne Cup-winning trainer into uncharted territory.<\/p>
\u201cHaving 40 wins in a season is great, it\u2019s always the number trainers want to get to \u2013 some can\u2019t get there \u2013 so it\u2019s good to finish off with more than 40. We had a bit of lull in the middle of the season, but we\u2019ve finished off well,\u201d Hall said before teaming up with Purton to land the Chow Silver Plate Handicap (1600m) with Flying Mojito after Alfred Chan and Caspar Fownes combined with 143\/1 outsider Lucky Quality to clinch the second section of the Class 4 Li Cup Handicap (1200m).<\/p>
Hong Kong racing continues on Wednesday night (12 July) with the final Happy Valley meeting of the season.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”24174″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Zac Purton will continue his pursuit of Douglas Whyte\u2019s towering Hong Kong career record for the most wins by a jockey after surpassing Joao Moreira\u2019s mark for the most victories in a single season at Sha Tin on Sunday (9 July).Further cementing his status among Hong Kong horseracing\u2019s galaxy of stars,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":24178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24172"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24172"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24181,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24172\/revisions\/24181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}