Zac Purton Nears 2,000 Hong Kong Wins with Sha Tin Treble

Zac Purton is on the verge of another slice of history after moving to within two wins of 2,000 in Hong Kong with a treble at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Hopes were high for the eight-time Hong Kong champion jockey to become the first rider to reach 2,000 on Sunday after he won on each of his first three rides.

However, he came up empty from his remaining seven mounts, leaving him needing just two victories at Happy Valley on Wednesday night to create history.

“It was all right. I was hoping to ride one or two today, so three was better than expected,” Purton said.

Purton started the Group One meeting in a blaze of glory, winning the opening Class Five Standard Chartered Digital Assets Handicap (1,600m) on Flying Amani before claiming the second section of the Class Four Standard Chartered Sustainable Finance Handicap (1,400m) on Come Fast Fay Fay and the second section of the Class Four Standard Chartered Corporate & Investment Banking Handicap (1,200m) on Packing King.

His recommendation to trainer David Hall to drop Flying Amani to Class Five paid off when the four-year-old recorded his first win at start nine.

Settled near the rear of the field after starting slowly with blinkers on for the first time, Flying Amani launched a strong run down the centre of the track in the straight to loom alongside leader Perfecto Moments at the 100m.

The pair fought tenaciously to the line, but it was Purton and Flying Amani who prevailed by a short head.

“He’s had a few unlucky runs where he hasn’t had clear room and Zac was sort of chasing him to go to Class Five,” Hall said.

“I was thinking about the lightweight [in Class Four], he’s not a big horse but anyway, we decided to go to Class Five with the big weight with Zac on and thankfully, got the job done.

“He’s been very slow out of the gates and we had to make some sort of change to try and improve that. It’s obviously very hard to win from the back all the time and it’s going to be more difficult with a big weight in Class Five, so we tried the blinkers.

“It didn’t really put him in a better position, but he certainly jumped a bit better today, even though he was still back in the field. As I said, thankfully he got the job done and he might get some confidence out of that today.”

Purton delivered in his first ride on Come Fast Fay Fay, making all on the Jimmy Ting Koon-ho-trained gelding to thump his rivals by two lengths.

It was the son of Wrote’s second career victory and first at Class Four level.

Packing King made it two-from-two since transferring to Danny Shum Chap-shing’s stable, sitting outside of the leader and drawing clear in the straight to beat Silver Spurs by a length and a half.

The son of Darci Brahma looks a progressive type with two wins from five starts and will make the leap to Class Three company at his next start.