Along with attracting the most auspicious honour that comes along with riding the first winner of the Lunar New Year, Zac Purton finished the day with a treble and gained some momentum he hopes results in a harmonious start to the Year of the Goat.
Purton has endured a stop-start first half of the season as suspensions and, more recently, an injury limited his output and virtually ended any chance of defending the jockeys' championship crown.
While rival rider Joao Moreira has opened up what looks an unassailable lead in the title race, and also beat Purton home in the day's feature race when Real Specialist upset Divine Calling, the Australian still pulled two wins back.
After winning the opener on Wild Boy, victories on Presidentparamount and Good Good View left him 26 behind the Brazilian - but championships aside, Purton was simply happy to be back on track.
"I've had some time out so it is good to be back at the races," he said. "The Chinese New Year represents a new start so it was good to begin it well. I've just lacked rhythm, I've been sidelined so much that it is hard to get on a roll."
Wild Boy's trainer Benno Yung Tin-pang pleaded with handicappers not to crucify his horse when ratings are released tomorrow, despite a relatively wide winning margin of three and a half lengths, arguing the winner of two from nine had already shown his limitations.
"He had the right draw and the race was run perfectly for him," Yung said, Purton agreeing with the second year handler's assessment. "I would hate to see the handicappers stomp on him because we have seen a fair bit of him now and he hasn't done anything that exciting," Purton said. "It looked like the track was playing to the leaders early in the day, he was able to get a soft lead from the draw against an ordinary field, so it may have looked a little better than it was. Still, he did it in good fashion."
When Danny Shum Chap-shing's Presidentparamount won last start Purton noted the four-year-old was "still learning", and despite notching back-to-back wins the jockey maintained the Australian-bred sprinter "still has no idea".
"He has got things a little back to front," Purton said after Presidentparamount pulled when placed behind runners, then seemed to stall when put into the clear.
"Mentally he just isn't there. Physically, as a horse, he is there but he is just running on raw ability. When he got to the front he didn't want to go on with it. It's a good sign that he is winning despite those issues."
Purton clinched the Jockey Challenge with a race to go on Good Good View, with trainer Dennis Yip Chor-hong's decision to bring the horse back in trip and reapplying the blinkers paying off, along with adopting patient tactics from a wide draw.
"He has been an extremely consistent horse this season but hadn't won, so it was nice to see him break through," Purton said.
