Zac Purton heads into Wednesday night’s final full-card all-weather meeting of the season with seven rides and a strong chance to close the standalone dirt program on a high.
Purton has 10 wins from 55 rides on the surface this season, a healthy strike rate of 18.2 percent. Andrea Atzeni leads him by one win from the same number of rides, but Purton holds the stronger top-three return at 40 percent, compared with Atzeni’s 36.4 percent.
The all-weather track has played a useful supporting role in another dominant Purton campaign. He reached 100 wins for the season for the 11th time on April 19 and has added nine more since heading into Wednesday’s meeting, with Sha Tin’s turf track accounting for 63 of those victories and Happy Valley another 36 as a ninth jockeys’ championship is all but sewn up.
Blazing Wind for Danny Shum Chap-shing and Talents Ambition for Mark Newnham headline Purton’s seven-ride book, adding another layer to a meeting where two trainers’ championship contenders also bring strong all-weather records.
Shum leads all trainers on the surface this season with nine wins from 62 runners, while Newnham has eight from 50 and the stronger top-three strike rate, at 46 percent compared with Shum’s 41 percent.
Purton is unbeaten in two rides aboard Blazing Wind and is upbeat about reuniting with the five-year-old in the finale.
“He seems a lot healthier,” Purton told The Standard. “He was struggling for a long period of time, but he has turned a corner recently.
“He’s been racing a lot better than what he was last season, obviously. He’s holding his own in Class 3, which he’s never been able to do before. He’s coming off the back of a couple of good runs and he has drawn well.”
Purton is also looking to go one better on Talents Ambition after missing by a head when riding the noted backmarker for the first time last start. Barrier 11, however, makes the task more awkward this time.
“You’d rather be drawn in than out, even though he gets back,” Purton said. “It makes it hard, especially with top weight. He needs pace on and the right run.”
Not every booking carries the same all-weather strength. Mega Awesome debuts for David Hayes, whose 48 wins this season contrast with just three from 57 on the dirt, while Purton also rides Never Peter Out and Fun N Fun Together for Frankie Lor Fu-chuen, whose stable has won only once from 46 all-weather runners despite once carrying the unofficial “King of the Dirt” tag.
𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓
