Zac Purton moved to within 10 wins of a record 2,000 victories in Hong Kong thanks to a double aboard Invictus Dragon and Smart Avenue at Sha Tin on Saturday.
Purton currently sits on 1,990 wins in the city after breaking Douglas Whyte’s all-time record of 1,813 victories last season.
The eight-time Hong Kong champion jockey celebrated a century of wins for the 10th consecutive campaign, and 11th total time, less than three weeks ago.
Invictus Dragon secured the first leg of the double when breaking through to score his maiden Hong Kong triumph courtesy of a Purton special in the Class Four Castle Peak Handicap (1,400m).
The Francis Lui Kin-wai-trained gelding settled well back in the field and saved plenty of ground towards the inside before Purton weaved the four-year-old between runners to win by a length and a quarter over Lucky Man.
“Things opened up nicely for me, he deserved to win,” Purton said.
“He’s been knocking on the door and with his racing style, it’s always hard. It can easily get away but hopefully he can get some confidence out of it.”
Lui credited the victory to Purton, who had stayed on board the Blue Point galloper for his previous three starts.
“He’s always been knocking on the door. Zac has kept riding him for the last couple of races, he still thought this horse could win the race, and I think now he knows what to do,” Lui said.
Dennis Yip Chor-hong also recorded a double, combining with Purton for a victory with Smart Avenue in the Class Three Pok Fu Lam Reservoir Handicap (1,600m). The son of Shamus Award overpowered Amazing Partners late to record his second local win by half a length.
A drop back in distance and application of visors for the first time both contributed to the triumph.
“He’s got good ability for Class Three and even Class Two, no problem,” Yip said.
“The best thing is Zac promised me he would ride this horse. He rode him in the morning and after he first galloped him, he told me ‘this horse wasn’t hitting the line strongly, so you can try the visor on him and I will join in with the other horse and make him hit the line’. So he galloped him two times to teach him and now you can see, he hit the line very strongly.
“The last few times, he was only beaten a head and he didn’t know what to do, so Zac helped us there.”
The second of Yip’s winners, Northern Fire Ball, led all the way to score dominantly in the first section of the Class Four Tuen Mun Public Riding School Handicap (1,200m).
Gate speed and Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu’s 10lb claim saw the Sooboog galloper notch his first Sha Tin victory by two and a half lengths from Matzden. The four-year-old had come into the race having missed a run due to a lame left foreleg, but also trialled impressively with a strong all-the-way win.
“The main things today were the 10lb allowance and so many new horses in the race. My horse has got natural speed and he controlled the pace,” Yip said.
Yip heaped praise on Yuen, who has made a strong start to her Hong Kong career.
“[Yuen] needs more experience, but she listens. I thought there wasn’t much pace in this race, so I told her to jump and not rush him too hard. She followed all the instructions,” Yip said.
