Purton fails in record bid and Size is crowned champion trainer on final day

Hong Kong champion jockey Zac Purton fell two short of equalling Joao Moreira's record of 170 victories in a season, despite riding a double on the final day of the campaign at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Purton had ten rides on the 11-race card, knowing he needed four winners to match the landmark and five to surpass the outstanding total Moreira registered in 2016-17.

The Australian, who picked up his third jockeys' title, got off to the perfect start when winning comfortably on the John Moore-trained Above in the 1m1f handicap.

Purton was then beaten on favourites Adonis and Breeze Of Spring before meeting with further defeats on Super Kin and My Winner, who was overhauled in the shadow of the post.

Defining Moment ensured Purton bounced back from that disappointment with a winner, but he failed to strike again.

That did not take the gloss off a campaign in which the 36-year-old became only the second jockey to partner more than 1,000 winners in Hong Kong and won a record HK$234 .9 million in prize-money along with seven Group 1 winners.

"It’s amazing what I’ve been able to achieve this season – just getting to that number of winners, I don't think anyone thought it was possible," he said.

"It's been an incredible season when you reflect back on the milestones, the records and the successes I've had – it's quite astonishing and it's going to be very hard to equal and extremely hard to top.

"I owe everything to the owners and trainers who give me the support. It's one season I think I'll always remember for many different reasons – I wouldn't have minded if this season had kept rolling on forever!"

John Size: crowned champion trainer in Hong Kong for an 11th timeCredit: Hugh Routledge

In the other major story of Hong Kong's closing fixture, John Size held off the challenge of Moore to clinch his 11th champion trainers' title.

Two wins separated the pair at the beginning of the mammoth bill, a deficit that was immediately halved by the success of Above.

However, wins for the Size-trained Monkey Jewellery and Aerohappiness, with the latter beating Moore's Hello Beauty, ensured the trainer's tally of 78 winners proved enough as he prevailed by three.

"It's a big relief when you win," Size said after he had matched his rival's father George Moore's record. "It's difficult, it's not that easy, so you just have to put your head down and keep going – do your best for every individual in the stable and you might come up with a championship.

"You can't put a price on morale, so when you're winning it helps everybody, it helps the whole stable. My team has been with me for many years so they know what's involved, they know that if they keep going it will probably work out well."

Moore, a seven-time title winner responsible for brilliant miler Beauty Generation, was far from downbeat, however.

"It's the most winners I've ever had in a season and to fight it out with John was really something, we've given him a run for his money and that's not easy," said the 69-year-old who will not be able to train beyond next term due to Hong Kong Jockey Club regulations on age.

"We went to a strike-rate that was a serious strike-rate, just to put John in our sights. It would have been good to go right to the last race but congratulations to John."

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