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Purton Could Be Key As Ng And Lui Go To The Wire

The soon-to-be seven-time champion jockey Zac Purton will be right in the mix of the action when the Hong Kong champion trainer title is decided at Sha Tin on Sunday.

Purton Could Be Key As Ng And Lui Go To The Wire

The soon-to-be seven-time champion jockey Zac Purton will be right in the mix of the action when the Hong Kong champion trainer title is decided at Sha Tin on Sunday.

ZAC PURTON IS USED TO being involved in the pressure of dramatic last day tussles to decide championships, but while his own champion jockey title was sewn up long before this Sunday’s Hong Kong season finale, he will still be in the thick of things as a key player in what is shaping to be a nail-biting climax to the trainers’ premiership.

Two years ago, the Australian was putting his fatigued mind and body through the mill going into the season’s last fixture ‘toe-to-toe’ against an equally drained Joao Moreira and emerged the victor, so he knows all too well the emotions Pierre Ng Pang-chi and Francis Lui Kin-wai will be experiencing as they each battle to secure a first champion trainer title.

Ng heads into the season’s last fixture with 67 wins to his former boss Francis Lui’s 66 wins. But it gets more interesting still: if they end with the same number of wins, dead-heats are then knocked off (neither trainer has that to worry about), and then it goes to countback; Ng has 54 second placings to Lui’s 53; if it has to go to third-placed finishers, Ng has 55 to Lui’s 52.

“Pierre has the advantage at the moment,” said Purton. “He’s one in front and has had one more second, and that means he’s effectively two in front at this point. If Pierre has a winner, Francis really has to get three to beat him and that’s going to be hard for him. But Francis has a lot of strong horses to run on that last day so he’s throwing everything at it.”

Zac Purton and Pierre Ng
ZAC PURTON, PIERRE NG / Sha Tin Racecourse // 2023 /// Photo by Lo Chun Kit

Lui’s 10 runners are spread across nine of the 11 races, whereas Ng’s nine runners are engaged in seven of the afternoon’s contests.

It’s tight, but Purton’s right, Ng has the upper hand. That changes though if Lui wins the first of their head-to-head clashes, race two, the Class 2 Joy And Fun Handicap. The contest has only seven runners but holds plenty of fascination, with Lui and Ng having two runners apiece. If Lui wins that and then bags a second or two before the halfway point and Ng’s runners misfire, it will set up a very tasty back half of the card.

Purton will partner Lui’s Call Me Glorious in the Class 2, a three-year-old with three wins from five starts and a last-time winner. The champion rides in 10 of the 11 races on the card and in four of those he has mounts for the Lui stable and in two he is on the side of the Ng team.

His rides for Ng are Sha Tin Class 4 winner Fighting Machine and the once-raced three-year-old First Love; the rest of his Lui-trained arsenal are Chancheng Glory in the Class 1 feature, and the promising young guns Packing Hermod, and Steps Ahead.

“Those horses have all had a good season, they’re all in good form,” Purton said. “I galloped all of them (Thursday) morning and they’re going through their paces nicely. Hopefully the track is fair at the weekend and they get their chances.”

Zac Purton Happy Valley
ZAC PURTON / Happy Valley Racecourse // 2023 /// Photo by Lo Chun Kit

What makes the final day showdown between Lui and Ng all the more interesting is what Purton terms the “master and apprentice” factor, combined with where both men are at in their careers.

“They both have a lot of respect for each other,” Purton said. “Pierre is young and enthusiastic and he’s hit the ground running: he’s doing really well. Then we’ve got Francis who has had a really good last five or six years and has done an amazing job with Golden Sixty, and also with all the other horses in his stable. He’s towards the twilight of his career and he’s put himself in a position to possibly win a championship as well.”

Ng’s rise as a licensed trainer has been rapid. This is only his second season and here he is, on the cusp of being champion, but he has long been seen as leading trainer material. He assisted his father, Peter Ng and helped him to his best tally of winners in his final season; then he assisted Paul O’Sullivan during that stable’s boom period, which included a close association with the star sprinter Aerovelocity; then to John Size and the master trainer posted a record tally, too; finally he assisted Lui at the time of the champion Golden Sixty and that stable’s rise.

Lui is at the other end of the career path. He is 65 and spent most of his career as a low to middle-ranking trainer: 10 or so years ago, it would have been inconceivable to most observers that Lui could be champion. But along came Group 1 winner Lucky Bubbles and then the great Golden Sixty and he has proven consistently over the past few seasons that he is up with the best, an established top five trainer.  

Trainer Francis Lui
FRANCIS LUI, VINCENT HO / Sha Tin Racecourse // 2023 /// Photo by Lo Chun Kit

It must be noted that both are local Hong Kong people, born and raised in the city, and they are at the forefront of the shift in the balance of power that has seen the old power, the expatriate bloc, recede over the past five or six years.

They may not have the charisma of the retired former champion John Moore or the overt self-confidence of David Hayes, but they are doing the business better than anyone else right now.

“They’re both their own men,” Purton said. “Pierre is not in your face: during trackwork in the mornings he spends a lot of time at the stables, he doesn’t often come to the sand yard for the barrier trails, he stays in his stables and watches on the screen from there. He does a lot of things in the background, in the stable, and so far as being out in the open, he doesn’t spend as much time out there.

“Francis is a quiet guy that goes about his business and does his thing. They’re both just going about their own business.”

That quiet conscientiousness, though, is complemented by all the skills and attributes a champion trainer requires: dedication, hard work, processes that work, man management, and, of course, excellent horsemanship.

But on Sunday, when the horses load in the gates, it is out of their hands. Then it will come down to the horses and the jockeys on their backs, and Purton could yet be the difference, the one whose skills might just be that final factor in determining which man becomes champion trainer.

David Morgan is Chief Journalist at Idol Horse. As a sports mad young lad in County Durham, England, horse racing hooked him at age 10. He has a keen knowledge of Hong Kong and Japanese racing after nine years as senior racing writer and racing editor at the Hong Kong Jockey Club. David has also worked in Dubai and spent several years at the Racenews agency in London. His credits include among others Racing Post, ANZ Bloodstock News, International Thoroughbred, TDN, and Asian Racing Report.

View all articles by David Morgan.

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