Zac Purton hopes Beauty Eternal can help accelerate the Australian’s momentum towards Hong Kong racing history at Sha Tin on Saturday.
With 19 meetings left in the season, Purton has already amassed 132 winners and needs 39 more to eclipse Joao Moreira’s record of 170 victories in 2016/17 for the most wins in a Hong Kong season and with seven wins from 24 rides so far this month, the five-time champion is on track to threaten Moreira’s mark.
Of Purton’s nine mounts at the weekend, John Size-trained Beauty Eternal shapes as the most compelling as the talented four-year-old chases a sixth victory at his eighth start in an impressive first preparation.
“He’s (Beauty Eternal) done a really good job this season, he hasn’t let us down, he’s turned up every time and he did that again last time,” Purton said of the Hong Kong Derby (2000m) third place-getter.
“Last time, coming back from the Derby distance (to 1400m), he took quite a while to accelerate and get into top gear and he only just got there on the line. This time, hopefully we can get into it a little bit earlier and help him with the distance.
“He hasn’t really had an ideal ‘prep’ to his career so far, we had to rush him to get to the Derby – he stepped from 1200m to 1400m to 2000m – and had to be freshened up to come back to 1400m last time.
“The way he got to the line it looked like a mile might be his best distance but here we are again at 1400m and it’s probably the first time since the early start to his career that he’s run at the same distance two times in a row.
“He hasn’t been able to get into the groove, as such, but he’s been doing a really good job and hopefully he can continue on with that.”
Leading Vincent Ho (72 winners) by 60 in the 2022/23 Hong Kong jockeys’ championship, Purton is equivocal about his chances of breaking Moreira’s record.
“If you look at the numbers, the amount of winners I’ve ridden, the good winners I’ve ridden and horses I’ve ridden, you would probably look at it and say I’ve had a good season or an excellent season, but I just feel like I’ve been grinding and haven’t really been going as well as I would have liked,” Purton said.
“A few of the trainers I thought I might get a little more support from haven’t really got behind me so it’s been a little bit frustrating and I’ve had a lot of bad gates, but you’ve just got to deal with what’s thrown at you, but I want to be going better than I am.”
Also enjoying an outstanding season, Ho will look to add more gloss when he partners Francis Lui’s last-start winner Golden Samurai in the first section of Class 4 Friendship Bridge Handicap (1400m).
“It (winning) was quite a surprise, to be honest, last time. We expected him to improve but we didn’t expect him to win the race. He travelled so well that day and had a nice kick in the straight, so it was a good surprise,” said Ho, who has already eclipsed his previous-best career haul of 67 winners.
“Lately, he has improved through his trials and gallops and he feels even better than last time. It will be interesting to see how he handles 1400m. He’s quite mature. I feel like he will just keep on improving. He’s a strong, big boy.”
Pierre Ng is optimistic Healthy Healthy can become his stable’s latest winner.
“Last time, he was a bit unlucky so this time we hopefully get a smoother start. Definitely, he’s green. He hasn’t done any barrier trials before he came to Hong Kong, so we have to do everything here but for the first ‘prep’, he’s done pretty much a good job,” Ng said.
“I know he’ll keep improving and he’ll be a very nice four-year-old.”
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