Sustained excellence is one of Hong Kong racing’s traits and few embody it as powerfully as Zac Purton.
At Sha Tin last Sunday (5 May), Zac reached the 100-win milestone for the eighth consecutive season and the ninth time overall. Zac is not only a six-time champion jockey, but he has also finished second six times and third twice in the Hong Kong jockeys’ championship in his 16 completed seasons so far.
At 41, Zac continues to perform at elite levels as evidenced by his four-timer at the weekend and, with a Hong Kong career total of 1,710 wins, he is edging ever closer to 13-time Douglas Whyte’s all-time record of 1,813 wins.
Zac’s professionalism and ambition are key characteristics in his approach to every race, while his tactical awareness is outstanding as evidenced by his G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m) victory last month on BEAUTY ETERNAL and MASSIVE SOVEREIGN’s BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) triumph in March.
While Zac was the dominant figure in terms of sporting achievements on Sunday, I would like to recognise our Tracks team for their tremendous efforts and thank them for their hard work in adverse weather conditions to do everything possible to ensure a safe racing surface to continue racing when in many other racing jurisdictions the races would have to be called off.
Despite more than 450mm of rain falling across the preceding two weeks, Sha Tin was upgraded from Yielding to Good after two races on Sunday and, to emphasise the track’s incredible draining capacity, four of the turf races on the day were run inside standard time.
Our staff has performed with great dedication and commitment despite April’s record heat followed by exceptionally wet weather over the fortnight. Those two factors combined have posed multiple challenges for our team during the annual transition from winter grass to summer grass but Sunday’s track performance was nevertheless very good.
Our staff has proactively responded to the adverse conditions by strengthening the cultivation of summer grass with additional fertiliser, the use of growth lights and thorough maintenance of both the Happy Valley and Sha Tin tracks.
Happy Valley is even more challenging than Sha Tin because the track gets significantly less sunlight due to the surrounding buildings, especially the Grandstand, and our teams try to compensate for this with grow lights.
The expectation is that, with decent weather, the situation will improve over the next two to three weeks as the summer grass strengthens with more conducive conditions.
The G3 Queen Mother Memorial Cup Handicap (2400m) proved to be strong staying test on Sunday with LA CITY BLANCHE running 2m 25.46s to defeat stablemate FIVE G PATCH to record the fastest time in this race since 1995.
The feature race was once again a triumph for Tony Cruz, a proven master with stayers, and Matthew Chadwick, who was at his unflustered best on the Argentine Group 1 winner. Tony will now look to secure an eighth win in the G1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m) at Sha Tin on 26 May.
There were several other impressive performances on the day, including KA YING RISING for David Hayes. Still only a three-year-old KA YING RISING produced a final 400m sectional of 22.27s – which the fastest winning final sectional of the meeting – despite being eased down by Zac.
At Happy Valley on Wednesday, the Class 3 Shelley Handicap (1200m) is carded as Race 9 at 10.50pm with prizemoney of $1,860,000.
The pace in the race will be good with SUPER JOY N FUN from his rails draw and SPORTS LEGEND in gate three both looking to lead. SPORTS LEGEND may have the superior gate speed but with SUPER JOY N FUN drawn barrier one, SPORTS LEGEND might be held out for the lead. HAPPY FAT CAT will drive forward from gate eight to be in the leading division and SUPER FORTUNE can follow him across from gate nine and should also be prominent.
SUPER JOY N FUN is now undefeated in his two starts over this course and distance. On debut, he was hard ridden to be on the speed and took the lead in the straight to narrowly beat BEAUTY INFINITY. At his latest outing on 28 February, he was only fairly away from the gates but mustered speed to drive through and lead. SUPER JOY N FUN stayed hard against the rails and kicked clear at the 200m mark and safely held off LUCKY QUALITY to win well. He was sent to Conghua in early March and had two trials but has been back in Hong Kong for three weeks and is working satisfactorily. This is a rise in class for SUPER JOY N FUN but from his rails draw he is a place chance for Zac Purton who rides him for the first time.
SPORTS LEGEND dropped to Class 4 and was a big winner over EASY SNIP on 20 March and then backed that up with an impressive all the way victory here on 10 April in Class 3. SPORTS LEGEND drew wide in that race and showed good early speed to lead, kicking clear on the turn and safely holding COLOURFUL EMPEROR in the run to the line. SPORTS LEGEND will have benefitted from time at Conghua since his last run and should have the gate speed to lead from gate three. SPORTS LEGEND is working very well and he is a win and place chance for Angus Chung.
HAPPY FAT CAT won two races over this course and distance when leading or racing on the speed. At his last run, HAPPY FAT CAT made a lunge at the gates and as a consequence was slowly away and well beaten behind SUPERB CAPITALIST on 17 April. HAPPY FAT CAT has had an easy trial since then and can improve with a clean jump and is a place chance for Matthew Poon.
WINGS OF WAR continues to race consistently without winning and has minor placings at his past four runs. He eased out of the early speed battle and sat midfield off the fence, running home to finish second to KAHOLO ANGEL, who won impressively, over this course and distance on 17 April. WINGS OF WAR is working very well and races in the famous colours of Mary Slack, who is one of our overseas-based owners and I am optimistic she will soon celebrate her first victory in Hong Kong. Harry Bentley rides again and WINGS OF WAR is a place chance.
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