Sustained excellence is the hallmark of champion athletes across the entire sports spectrum and Zac Purton stands among an elite coterie of sportspeople with the rare ability to consistently deliver exceptional performances.
With a treble at Sha Tin on Saturday (28 June), Zac secured an eighth Hong Kong jockeys’ championship by boosting his lead over Hugh Bowman to 59 wins with only 50 races left in the 2024/25 Hong Kong season.
Since arriving in Hong Kong in the 2007/08 season, Zac has ridden against – and learnt from – the best in his chosen vocation, evolving into a truly world-class jockey. He not only holds the record for the most wins by a jockey in Hong Kong – 1,866 – and the most victories in a single season – 179 in 2022/23 – but Zac has now managed to ride more than 100 winners in a season on 10 occasions.
Zac’s development as a jockey accelerated because of his exposure to riders of the calibre of Douglas Whyte, Joao Moreira, Brett Prebble and Gerard Mosse and, as the current exemplar, Zac sets the standard for his contemporaries.
Ellis Wong, who celebrated his first Hong Kong treble at Sha Tin yesterday, attempts to learn as much as he can from Zac, Hugh Bowman and Vincent Ho and it is in this way the value of upcoming Hong Kong talent competing against decorated senior riders helps homegrown jockeys develop quickly into quality riders.
The same principle applies with the training cohort where the influence of John Size, Ivan Allan, John Moore and Tony Cruz have shaped the skills and careers of talented local horsemen such as Frankie Lor, Danny Shum, Pierre Ng and Benno Yung and many others.
Unlike the jockeys’ championship, the race for the trainers’ title is still mathematically alive with John leading David Hayes by seven wins – 64 to 57 – after David’s double at Sha Tin on Saturday, but everything would need to go David’s way over the next five meetings to deny John a record-extending 13th title.
Our simulcast programme continues today (29 June) with two races from Grand Prix de Saint‐Cloud Day at Saint-Cloud Racecourse in France and nine World Pool races from Irish Derby Day at The Curragh Racecourse in Ireland.
The first of nine races from The Curragh is scheduled at 8.15pm and the G1 Irish Derby is carded as S2-6 and will be run over 2400m at 11.10pm. The pace should be good and the track is currently good.
Much like the Epsom Derby, the Irish Derby is one of the most important races in the world from a breeding perspective with horses such as GALILEO, HIGH CHAPPARAL, CAMELOT and AUSTRALIA being Classic winners at The Curragh before advancing to successful stud careers.
AUSTRALIA, a son of GALILEO, has the favourite LAMBOURN (Ryan Moore) in this year’s Irish Derby, which Aidan O’Brien is attempting to win for the 17th time. LAMBOURN proved his staying ability under Wayne Lordan at Epsom and maintained a strong gallop to win by almost four lengths from LAZY GRIFF and TENNESSEE STUD. LAMBOURN is my win and place selection with Ryan taking the ride and searching for his third win in succession in the race, a feat not achieved previously by any jockey in the race.
Aidan also has a strong chance with the emerging talent PUPPET MASTER (Wayne Lordan), a son of CAMELOT and winner of the Derby Trial at Lingfield. He is a place chance along with TENNESSEE STUD (Dylan Browne McMonagle), who is by WOOTTON BASSET out of a SADLER’S WELLS mare and who stayed on in the final furlong of the Epsom Derby for third.
Hong Kong owner Marc Chan has GREEN IMPACT (Shane Foley) engaged. GREEN IMPACT is the first horse bred by Marc and the son of WOOTTON BASSET out of GALILEO mare EMERALD GREEN resumed with a solid sixth in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket in May when the ground did not suit and he pulled a shoe in running. He improved on that effort when leading to beat CURRAWOOD and AZADA in a Listed race over 1800m at Leopardstown on 5 June. GREEN IMPACT is a place chance.
LAZY GRIFF (William Buick) finished second to LAMBOURN at Chester and then ran another big race at Epsom, finishing second and is also a chance again along with PRIDE OF ARRAS (Rossa Ryan), who disappointed at Epsom.
The Irish Derby will be followed by the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, which is carded as S1-2 and run over 2400m at 11.30pm.
The race has attracted a small field of only five runners with two of the starters – GOLIATH and JUNKO – well known to Hong Kong racing followers who have watched them race previously at Sha Tin.
The pace likely to be moderate with no clear leader and GOLIATH may go to the front and lead throughout as he did last start when winning at Longchamp.
CALANDAGAN (Mickael Barzalona) has finished runner-up at his past four starts, all at Group 1 level. At his latest run, he was held up at the rear and finished well to take second behind JAN BREUGHEL in the Coronation Cup at Epsom on 6 June as short-priced favourite, with LONGINES G1 Hong Kong Vase winner GIAVELLOTTO a distant third. CALANDAGAN will be suited by the small field and can break through for a well-deserved win.
Trainer Francis-Henri Graffard has GOLIATH (Christophe Soumillon) engaged as well as CALANDAGAN. GOLIATH performed well below his best when ninth to TASTIERA in the G1 FWD QEII Cup at Sha Tin in April. He returned to winning form last start to win a Group 3 contest from GRAND STARS over 2000m at Longchamp on 8 June. GOLIATH is also a strong winning chance.
AVENTURE (Maxime Guyon) is yet to win at the highest level but ran an outstanding race to finish second to BLUESTOCKING in the G1 Prix l’Arc de Triomphe last October. She has won both her runs this year, the latest the G2 Prix de Corrida (2100m) at this track on 19 May from SURVIE and GRAND STARS. AVENTURE has an outstanding record and is my win selection.
JUNKO (Cristian Demuro) won the 2023 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase and was second-up when a close third in the Grand Prix de Chantilly. IRESINE (Marie Velon) finished eighth in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Vase behind GIAVELLOTTO in December and was a well-beaten fourth to GOLIATH in the La Coupe Stakes.
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