Zac Purton made it 10 wins from a record 2,000 wins in Hong Kong with two trips aboard Invictus Dragon and Smart Avenue at Sha Tin on Saturday.
Purton currently hold 1,990 wins in the city after breaking Douglas Whyte’s all-time record of 1,813 last season.
Hong Kong’s eight-time champion jockey celebrated a century of victories for the 10th consecutive campaign, and 11th overall, less than three weeks ago.
Invictus Dragon got the first leg of the double when he broke through to score his first Hong Kong victory courtesy of Purton Special in the Grade Four Castle Peak Handicap (1,400m).
The Francis Lui Kin-wai-trained filly settled well in the field and saved a lot of ground on the inside before Purton weaved the four-year-old between the runners to win by a length and a quarter over Lucky Man.
“Things opened well for me, he deserved to win,” Purton said.
“He’s been knocking on the door and with his style of racing, it’s always difficult. It could easily get away but hopefully he can get some confidence from him.”
Lui conceded the win to Purton, who had stayed on the Blue Point galloper for his last three outings.
“He’s always been knocking on the door. Zac has been riding him for the last two races, he still thought this horse could win the race, and I think now he knows what to do,” Lui said.
Dennis Yip Chor-hong also recorded a double, combining with Purton to win with Smart Avenue in the Grade Three Pok Fu Lam Reservoir Handicap (1,600m). The son of Shamus Prize beat Amazing Partners late to record his second domestic win by half a length.
The drop back in distance and the use of binoculars for the first time all contributed to the win.
“He has good potential for Class Three and even Class Two, no problem,” Yip said.
“The best thing is that Zac promised me that he would ride this horse, he rode him in the morning and after he raced him the first time he told me ‘this horse was not hitting the line hard, then you can try the visor and I will join the other horse and make him hit the line’ so he raced him twice to teach him and now you see, he hit the line very hard.
“A few times ago, he just got hit in the head and didn’t know what to do, so Zac helped us there.”
Yip’s runner-up, Northern Fire Ball, led the scoring in the first leg of the Class Four Tuen Mun Public Riding School Handicap (1,200m).
Gate speed and Nichola Yuen Hang-yiu’s 10lb claim saw the Sooboog jockey claim her maiden Sha Tin win by two and a half lengths from Matzden. The four-year-old went into the race unraced due to a lame front leg, but also tried in impressive fashion for a big all-round win.
“The highlights today were the 10lb allowance and a lot of new horses in the race. My horse has natural speed and controlled the pace,” Yip said.
Yip heaped praise on Yuen, who has made a strong start to his career in Hong Kong.
“(Yuen) needs more experience, but he’s listening. I thought there wasn’t much speed in this race, so I told him to jump and not rush him too much. He followed all the instructions,” Yip said.
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