Jack Dawling
In true Zac Purton style, Hong Kong's seven-time champion jockey is planning to return from his injury with a bang at Sha Tin this weekend.
Purton could only sit and watch on with a fractured toe as Ka Ying Rising picked up his third consecutive Group 1 win in last month's Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400 meters).
But after seven weeks on the sidelines, he chases a Group 2 double when he reunites with the world's highest-rated sprinter in Sunday's G2 Sprint Cup (1,200m) as well as Pierre Ng Pang-chi's likely favorite in the G2 Chairman's Trophy (1,600m), Galaxy Patch.
"I'm just looking forward to seeing those gates flying and getting among it," Purton told The Standard. "I feel pretty good."
Purton required surgery to realign and pin his left big toe after a nasty fall at Sha Tin on February 9, leading to him missing the rides on Ka Ying Rising and Galaxy Patch as well as last week's BMW Hong Kong Derby.
"Seven weeks out is a pretty long time and it was okay to start with because I was able to live a normal life," he said. "But it gets to a point where you need to start getting your weight back down and you're doing your rehab but you're not getting any reward for it."
The Australian rider will likely get his reward on Sunday when he partners David Hayes' sprinting machine, Ka Ying Rising, who searches for an 11th successive victory in the Sprint Cup.
"We'll just try to get him out clean, find the right spot and let him do his thing," Purton said. "He's a pleasure to do anything with and it's just a case of copy and paste - hopefully it remains like that."
Ka Ying Rising will jump from gate six when he concedes five pounds to his six rivals as the only horse to win a Group 1 since April 7 last year.
One hour and five minutes before Ka Ying Rising heads out to the 1,200m start, Purton will team up with last year's Derby runner-up, Galaxy Patch, for the first time in the Chairman's Trophy.
Purton rode Galaxy Patch in a barrier trial last week on the Sha Tin dirt and hopes the galloper can get back on track after a disappointing eighth in the G1 Hong Kong Gold Cup (2,000m) last month.
"He's lost his way a little bit this season and if you want to sit two or three lengths behind the second-last horse in every race over a mile when there's potentially no speed, it's very hard to run horses of this caliber down," Purton said. "We'll see what happens because I can't really give accurate feedback until I ride him on race day."
jack.dawling@singtaonewscorp.com
