Four-time Hong Kong champion jockey Zac Purton answers the questions
Zac Purton is a four-time champion jockey in Hong Kong, where he has ridden more than 1,300 winners since relocating from his native Australia in 2007.
Purton, 39, is the only rider in history to have won every G1 race in the Hong Kong calendar and he new single-season prize-money record of nearly HK$235m ($30m) during his best campaign in during his best campaign when he rode 168 winners in 2018-19.
His career began in Brisbane where he won the jockeys’ premiership while still an apprentice before moving to Sydney. In 2012 Purton travelled to Royal Ascot where he captured the King's Stand Stakes on Little Bridge; he was also regular rider of dual HK horse of the year Beauty Generation.
Which racing figure past or present do you most admire?
Corey Brown was my idol and I have modelled my style on him. He was a very pretty rider; he always had a straight back and looked nice and neat on horses. I watched the way he rode a finish and quite liked the balance he had on horses. Say you have a backpack on your back, if it’s loose and you’re running and it is bouncing up and down, it is going to affect your balance. If it’s nice and tight and tucked in, you can run more efficiently.
Corey’s style was quite efficient so I adopted the same philosophy. When I started off riding in the country, he was riding in Sydney. I watched him from afar and then he moved to Hong Kong so I watched him from there and that was when I first started to get interested in Hong Kong racing. As I grew up and got better, I moved to Sydney and I’ve become good friends with Corey as well.
Which is your favourite venue and race anywhere in the world?
I love riding at Sha Tin, Happy Valley and Randwick. My stats are pretty even at both Hong Kong tracks.
Happy Valley can be a really tricky track to ride and a lot of jockeys don’t like riding there, but for me it’s quite an exciting track because you don’t have to be on the best horse to win. If you can get the best run in the race, you can still have a chance to win. Tactically you need to stay focussed in every race and at every point of the race. Sometimes it can be better to ride for luck or swoop. They mainly race there at night and I find it quite exciting.
Randwick is a beautiful track with a lovely layout. It’s in a great position in Sydney, near the beaches, and has a good atmosphere, a good vibe. It’s a very fair track, always has a lovely surface and a lot of the big Sydney races are held there. I always enjoyed riding there.
The best race is the Melbourne Cup. I’ve not had many rides but run third and fourth. I thought I was building my way towards being able to win it and then Covid-19 hit so I haven’t been able to compete in the last few years. It’s a race I would like to win if I can. I am running out of time and opportunities, but the dream is always there.
Who is your favourite racehorse and why?
Elite Ted, who was was trained by my boss Trevor Harding in Coffs Harbour. I walked into the stables when I was 14½ and he walked in as an unraced two-year-old. I used to ride him in all his trackwork, take him for a pick of grass, groom him. He was basically my little pony. In his early racing days I used to strap him, lead the jockey around the parade ring.
He was a phenomenal two-year-old. He won a heap of races and as I started riding myself, I was able to ride him and won a few more races on him as well. He might have been the best horse my boss ever trained and luckily for me he came around at the right time.
What is your fondest memory in racing?
There are many. Winning the Hong Kong Derby is always special. I did it on a horse called Luger after only picking up the ride two weeks out and I won at Royal Ascot, where I have had only one ride on Little Bridge.
I also won a G1 race in Japan [Takamatsunomiya Kinen] on another Hong Kong horse, Aerovelocity, who is the only foreign horse to have won that race. His trainer Paul O’Sullivan is a great friend of ours. His stable in Hong Kong wasn’t doing that well but this horse came along and helped build him back up to a full stable. Not only did we win two HK Sprints, we won three international G1 races in the one season, including Japan and Singapore.
Paul’s mum had passed away not long before the race in Japan. It was quite an emotional feeling when the horse won. He is the only horse I’ve ever been on in a G1 race where I nearly gave up at the 400-metre mark because he started losing ground. I thought he was gone and I nearly pulled him up. I was on the inside of the track and the ground was a little bit inferior, so I switched out three or four horses to the middle of the track and as soon as he could get his toe in, he changed his legs and suddenly went from losing ground to surge forward, overhaul the leaders and get up right on the line. It was an exciting win and a moment I will always remember and cherish.
If you could change one thing in racing, what would it be?
That each racing authority controlled the tote and the money flowed back through the industry to support the owners, trainers, jockeys, staff etc that work endlessly to put the show on. The model used by the Hong Kong Jockey Club should be replicated worldwide.
Zac Purton was speaking to Jon Lees
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