{"id":24256,"date":"2023-07-12T23:49:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-12T15:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ctr-campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/?p=24256"},"modified":"2023-07-13T10:09:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T02:09:07","slug":"zac-purton-francis-lui-crowned-valley-kings-after-happy-valley-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/news\/zac-purton-francis-lui-crowned-valley-kings-after-happy-valley-finale","title":{"rendered":"Zac Purton, Francis Lui crowned Valley Kings after Happy Valley finale"},"content":{"rendered":"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”24260″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Zac Purton and Francis Lui have been acclaimed Hong Kong racing\u2019s \u2018Kings of The Valley\u2019 after the pair clinched the jockey and trainer mantles for the most wins at Happy Valley this season with multiples on Wednesday night (12 July).<\/p>

Entering the meeting locked on 49 wins with Vincent Ho \u2013 who had led for much of the season \u2013 Purton slotted a treble atop Jamie Richards\u2019 Seasons Wit, Tony Cruz-trained Circuit Seven and Dennis Yip\u2019s Vincy to finish the city circuit season with 52 victories \u2013 and 176 for the campaign so far \u2013 while Ho went winless for the night.<\/p>

Lui led Caspar Fownes 31-30 heading into tonight\u2019s fixture and sealed the issue with the victories of Hameron and Joy Coming to further enhance the best season of his career as he moved into second place overall in the trainers\u2019 championship behind John Size (75) with 66 wins and with only 11 races left in the season.<\/p>

Purton, who last Sunday (9 July) rode a quartet to eclipse Joao Moreira\u2019s single season record of 170 wins, said: \u201cIt\u2019s good. I\u2019ve just struggled this season for quality rides around here (Happy Valley). The trainers that have been training the majority of winners, I haven\u2019t been riding for.<\/p>

\u201cIt can be a hard place to ride when the barriers and track bias go against you, but it\u2019s been a little more difficult than it normally would be. I still enjoy coming here and if you get the right barrier, the right run, you\u2019re always going to be a chance.\u201d<\/p><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]

<\/div>

Seasons Wit lands a third consecutive win.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Luke Ferraris crowned an excellent season with a treble as the South African prodigy paraded accumulated knowledge and skills with an impressive display.<\/p>

The 21-year-old prevailed aboard Fast Serve, Concerto and Hameron to take his tally to 35 wins for the season \u2013 15 more than he amassed in his 2021\/22 debut campaign.<\/p>

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic,\u201d Ferraris beamed after Hameron\u2019s narrow victory in the Class 3 Let Me Fight Handicap (1800m) for Francis Lui. \u201cThis caps the season so far but we still have the final meeting of the season at Sha Tin on Sunday (16 July), so I\u2019m hoping to do well there, too.\u201d<\/p>

Twice winner of the South African champion apprentice title, Ferraris has spent the past two seasons soaking up the track nuances and race patterns in a world-class jockeys\u2019 room featuring Purton, Ho and Hugh Bowman.<\/p>

\u201cLearning about Hong Kong and the way they ride their tracks is very important \u2013 there are some ins and outs about them \u2013 and the longer you ride here, the more you get to the know them, the better result you can get out of your horse,\u201d Ferraris said after cleverly dictating aboard Jimmy Ting\u2019s Concerto to win the Class 4 Silver Grecian Handicap (1650m).<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019ve had good support this season, so credit to the trainers and owners I ride for.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”24261″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Ferraris combined with David Hall to win the Class 4 Kings Falcon Handicap (1000m) aboard Fast Serve, who strode to a three-length victory while clocking 56.78s.<\/p>

\u201cHe\u2019s got such a high cruising speed, so it\u2019s really nice to see him quicken under me which he never did at his first start,\u201d Ferraris said. \u201cObviously, he was green that time and he was again today \u2013 you saw him hit the inside fence \u2013 but he\u2019s starting to do things right and as long as he continues on this trajectory, it\u2019s pretty exciting for him.\u201d<\/p>

Purton reprised a dominant theme with a running double to open proceedings.<\/p>

Tony Cruz-trained Circuit Seven (134lb) quickly took the lead from barrier 11 under Purton to claim the Class 5 Street Cat Handicap (1000m) before the five-time Hong Kong champion jockey piloted Dennis Yip\u2019s Vincy (134lb) to his first win since April, 2021 with success in the Class 5 Sweet Orange Handicap (2200m).<\/p>

Lyle Hewitson notched his 50th winner of the season with Telecom Fighters\u2019 defiant victory in the Class 2 Sun Jewellery Handicap (1650m) for Me Tsui, having earlier struck Joy Coming\u2019s in the first section of the Class 4 Fast Most Furious Handicap (1200m) for Lui.<\/p>

Tony Millard registered his eighth win of the season when Hugh Bowman drove Togepi past One For All to clinch the second section of the Class 4 Star Shine Handicap (1200m).<\/p>

Hong Kong racing continues at Sha Tin on Sunday (16 July) with the 2022\/23 season finale.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”24260″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Zac Purton and Francis Lui have been acclaimed Hong Kong racing\u2019s \u2018Kings of The Valley\u2019 after the pair clinched the jockey and trainer mantles for the most wins at Happy Valley this season with multiples on Wednesday night (12 July).Entering the meeting locked on 49 wins with Vincent Ho \u2013 who… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":24259,"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\/24256"}],"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=24256"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24264,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24256\/revisions\/24264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/season-finale\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}