Zac Purton will partner Everest winner Classique Legend next month with the champion jockey electing to ride the popular grey in the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize.

The move ends a six-month stand-off between Purton and championship-leading trainer Caspar Fownes, as the pair look to rebuild their once prolific partnership.

Purton trialled Classique Legend at Sha Tin on Tuesday morning, with the horse rated the equal best sprinter in the world last year powering through his work in impressive fashion, winning by three-and-a-quarter lengths hard held.

The performance was in stark contrast to the trial he turned in soon after arriving in Hong Kong before his failure in the Hong Kong Sprint in December.

“We all saw it, he jumped out well, travelled well and did everything right,” Purton said. “There is certainly a fair bit of improvement in him you’d think.”

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Purton is well acquainted with the family, having partnered Classique Legend’s half-brother and stablemate Aethero seven times.

“I was happy with it, he is a lovely horse, he has a really good nature and has a lot of similarities with Aethero in the way he is built, the way he moves so I am familiar with that a little bit and it was good to feel it again,” he said.

While there are Group One aspirations for the pair, their first task will be in a fortnight’s time in the Group Two Sprint Cup (1,200m) where they meet the likes of Hot King Prawn and the up-and-coming Wellington.

Purton says the five-year-old is yet to reach the level which saw him dominate Australia’s best sprinters in the Everest last year, but he might not need to recapture that form to be dangerous against what are an even bunch of sprinters in Hong Kong.

“You’d like to go in with an ideal prep and a few lead-up runs, we don’t have the luxury of that but he is much more settled now than what he was in December,” he said.

“If he can get somewhere near his best form, it’s obviously good enough.”

With Purton choosing to partner Classique Legend in the upcoming features, it opens the door for Alexis Badel to retain the ride on impressive last-start winner Wellington.