On the verge of a magnificent sixth Hong Kong jockeys’ title, Zac Purton has enjoyed an annus mirabilis with a new single-season win record – despite almost being derailed before he started by serious injury. JA McGrath catches up with the Aussie expat
Hong Kong: It says a lot about Zac Purton that he was able to bounce back from a potentially catastrophic injury off the track to break longtime rival Joao Moreira’s Hong Kong record of 170 winners in a single season.
Purton sailed past the ‘Magic Man’s’ mammoth score with a four-timer at Sha Tin on Sunday [July 9], establishing a new mark with two meetings to spare. He rode three more at Happy Valley on Wednesday [July 12] to take his seasonal total to 176.
In racing parlance, he went to the line on the bridle – but flashback to 11 months ago, and you would not have taken 1,000-1 about his being able to pull it off. Purton and Moreira, the two great antagonists, had endured a torrid 2021-22 season, hard-hit by the ravages of Covid and the Hong Kong government’s stifling quarantine restrictions, and both left the region to take a well-earned annual break.
Purton had won back the jockeys’ championship from his arch-rival in a battle that was prolonged and hard-fought. To get away from it all, the Australian jockey took his family to the Maldives. What better way to escape the pressure cooker of Hong Kong? Oh no, how wrong he was on that one.
Purton takes up the story. “I was on holiday and I was going to go scuba diving,” he says. “I jumped off a pier and the water wasn’t as deep as I thought it was. I ended up landing on something and I fractured my foot in two places, and one of the bones broken was the cuboid bone, which is a vitally important part of the arch of the foot.”
Purton was in some pain, but there were no alarm bells ringing at that stage. “I had the foot scanned,” he explains. “I came back to Hong Kong and I thought I had fractures in my foot but I wasn’t quite sure, so I thought I will ride trackwork, see how it feels, and if I feel I can put up with it, I will go on with it.”
What the multiple champion had not taken into account was how serious the injuries would be considered by doctors. Purton says: “The MRI scans confirmed the fractures and the advice from the specialist was not to mess with the cuboid bone because if you damage it, it will affect your gait, the way you walk.
“The specialist recommended I be fitted with a moon boot for three months to get the weight off it, to protect it,” he goes on. “I was a bit shocked, to be honest, really taken aback. So I rang a couple of specialists in Australia, and they looked at the images – and they said the same thing.
Taking the chance
“Inside, I thought to myself, I can handle the pain, I think I can ride through it. I understood that I could do more damage, even break the foot in half and that would require surgery just through the pressure I was putting on it through riding. But I was happy to roll the dice, take the chance, and see where I ended up.”
The story has a happy ending, as we know. Defying the specialists, the 40-year-old has gone on to enter the record books, and following Sunday’s final meeting of the Hong Kong season, he will officially pick up his sixth jockeys’ title. It is little short of a walking and riding medical miracle.
Sadly, there was no such happy outcome for Moreira, who was plagued by a recurring hip injury that saw him make a late start to the season and then hand in his local licence in December. He made the HKIR (Hong Kong International Races) his farewell appearance in December.
For a decade, Purton and Moreira went head-to-head, providing local fans with plenty of excitement and interest with their daily clashes. Locals were split in their allegiance, while owners and trainers knew that if they were turned down by one to ride their horse, there was a good chance the other would step in.
Purton explains that although they were fierce rivals on the track, he and Moreira were actually friendly towards each other. “We sat in the same area in the jockeys’ room at Sha Tin every Sunday,” he says. “We would always chat. Socially, we even played football together.
“I always admired him as a jockey,” he goes on. “I was in awe of what he was able to do on a horse and everything he was able to achieve. I always felt humbled that he held me in the same regard and I felt like I was losing a member of my family when he left.”
Suggestions the pair may not have been bosom buddies seems way wide of the mark. “Frankly, I like him,” says Purton. “He’s a good person – he’s a good family man, a great rider. It doesn’t matter where he’s been around the world, he’s been successful at every port of call,”
But even given Purton’s huge respect for his great rival, that never stopped him playing mind games with the Brazilian. In cricket terms, he often indulged in a bit of ‘sledging’ – described in modern dictionaries as ‘the practice of making taunting or teasing remarks to an opposing player in order to disturb their concentration’.
Purton laughs, admitting: “I would ‘gee’ him up a bit in the jockeys’ room. But the more I tried to ‘gee’ him up, the more winners he rode! So I soon dropped off that.
Different tactic
“That’s the Australian culture coming through. I quickly realised that wasn’t going to work with him. I had to employ a different tactic after that.”
Moreira’s departure late last year left a void, partially filled since by the arrival of Sydney jockey Hugh Bowman, who is forever remembered for his association with Australia’s mighty mare Winx.
In April, Moreira also rode successfully at The Championships, a two-day carnival at Randwick, Sydney, as part of his self-styled farewell world tour before retirement from the saddle.
“He chose to go back to Brazil when he left,” Purton reports. “That’s what he wanted to do and that’s fair enough. I’ve been left to do my own thing in Hong Kong, and while some were questioning whether I would still have the motivation and drive to want as much success, results have shown that I have been able to maintain that focus without him.”
Indeed so. Purton started the season in flying form, riding the fastest 50 in Hong Kong racing history.
In an incredible display of sustained dominance, Purton’s colossal season reached a peak with a seven-timer at Sha Tin on 9 October and has also included two quintets, eight four-timers and 19 trebles.
“I got off to a very good start this season and that put the idea in my head to try to chase Joao’s record,” he says. “I knew I needed a lot of things to go my way, and thankfully they have.
“I’ve worked hard and it hasn’t been smooth sailing all of the way,” he adds. “I sort of lost my focus through the mid-stage of the season with plenty of things that were going on.
“Once I cleared the fog and got my mind back onto the job, I was behind in the run chase there, I needed something to happen and fortunately for me, the ball started bouncing my way and it’s just continued to roll since.”
Establishing a record that surely looks unbeatable, no matter what dominant jockey emerges in future years, has brought an enormous sense of pride to Purton. “This season has been one I will forever be grateful for and will reflect on,” he says. “It’s extremely satisfying.”
Touching distance
But there is another riding record in Hong Kong that Purton is well aware is still waiting to be conquered. Like an Everest for the mountain climber, Douglas Whyte’s career total of 1,813 winners is on the horizon.
“It’s within touching distance,” says Purton, who recently notched up his 1,600th local winner on Reward Smile at Happy Valley.
But will he keep going to have a crack at it? “My body will tell me how far I can go,” he says. “I will recharge and see how I feel when I come back next season.
“I’ll kick on and if I continue to get support from owners and trainers and I am riding winners, I will let things flow on a bit from there. Obviously I will strive to ride as many winners as I can.”
If he enjoys a 2023-24 season as successful as the one he has just had, Purton could be only 50 winners or so from Whyte’s all-time figure. “If we have another good season next season, I won’t be too far off,” he says. “It’s a possibility but it’s not something I’m focussing on at the moment.”
In the meantime, the Queensland-born jockey looks forward to the final day of the Hong Kong season, an 11-race card at Sha Tin on Sunday [July 16].
Then it will be time for a holiday – but you can bet your life he won’t be jumping off any piers this time.
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