The Zac Purton caravan just keeps rolling on, with the Australian jockey stretching his championship lead to 15 at Sha Tin with another winning treble, reports the HK Racing Post (www.racing.scmp.com). Purton has had at least one winner at 16 of the last 17 race meetings, missing out only last Wednesday at Happy Valley.
He opened with a dead-heat on talented but "new" Archippus for Peter Ho Leung, and added another for the same trainer on Flame Hero later in the day, with Let Me Go sandwiched between them as Purton became part of John Moore's four-win haul.
Archippus was simply beaten by his own inexperience, travelling like a winner throughout the first race up the straight, claiming Pure Victory (Tye Angland) inside the 200m and looking all set to cruise home before the more experienced horse dug in and they finished level.
"He got there really comfortably but when I asked him to go and put the other horse away, he didn't really know what to do and lost his way," Purton said. "Still, it's hard to think any less of him for that - he was just new to it and he has shared the win, which is a pretty good starting point for his career."
Flame Hero had more experience, with five starts behind him, but while his record reads as a previous winner he had been second past the post and the actual easy winner was later disqualified, so winning was a new thing for him, too.
"He's had those couple of runs at 1,650m, so coming back to 1,400m, he relaxed better than he has been," the jockey said. "Good gate, good trip through the race - he made it look a bit like hard work considering that and he will have to go up a notch if he's going to be competitive in Class Three.
"But in saying that, he hasn't had a lot of racing and he is still learning."
Moore made the back half of the meeting his own, winning four of the last six races, and while Let Me Go isn't as progressive as the likes of Able Friend or Designs On Rome, Moore said there was still an upside to the gelding after two wins from three runs this season.
"He's going in the right direction. He goes to Class Three and there are plenty of races at 1,600m for him there and he should handle that," Moore said.
"Maybe later, we'll get him out to a little further, but I'm in no hurry to do it yet."
Purton said the race plan yesterday was better than Let Me Go's previous outing when he looked desperately unlucky from an inside draw.
"He had a wider gate this time and the big weight but the pace was just right - not too fast, not too slow, just smooth," he said. "So I was able to get a nice suck into it and an uninterrupted run down the outside this time, unlike the last time when I was getting stopped between horses. "