Zac Purton landed his first Happy Valley treble of 2023 on Wednesday night, moving to 149 wins for the season and edging ever closer to Joao Moreira’s single-season record in the process.

While Purton increased his premiership lead over second-placed Vincent Ho Chak-yiu to a remarkable 69 victories, it is the race within the race that has everyone’s attention and the Australian now needs exactly two wins a meeting from the final 11 fixtures to sail past Moreira’s mark of 170.

After the earlier victories of Jimmy Ting Koon-ho’s The Runner and the Manfred Man Ka-leung-trained Golden Luck, Purton completed his haul aboard Jamie Richards’ progressive three-year-old Seasons Wit in the Class Three Shung Ling Handicap (1,000m).

After settling Seasons Wit behind leader Harmony N Blessed from the inside gate, Purton popped his mount out at the top of the straight and the gelding took control in the final 100m to post a second consecutive success in tandem with the Australian.

“He was in a good barrier. He got out of the gates well enough to take advantage of it, stalked the speed and it all fell for him. He’s only a young horse. He did a good job,” Purton said. “Jamie has done a good job with him.”

Harmony N Blessed finished one length away in second to complete the third consecutive Harmony N Blessed-Seasons Wit quinella in as many meetings between the pair, with Richards’ charge holding a 2-1 advantage over David Hayes’ galloper through that stretch.

“He’s found his form, he’s racing consistently, and he was the benefactor of a nice draw. He stalked the horse to beat and got over the top of him late. He’s a young horse on the way up, and he’s certainly racing very well,” Richards said, adding he is open to running Seasons Wit again this season if things fall into place.

“We’ll just see how he comes through. He’s quite a good doing little horse. He wouldn’t want to have a long break. Let’s see what the handicapper does with him tomorrow.

“There are other options for him a little bit later in the season, but we’ll just talk to the ownership group and see what they want to do.

“He’s going to continue to improve next year as well. He’s only a three-year-old, and I’m looking forward to the future with him. He’s a nice, young sprinting horse.”

On a night when the spoils were largely shared, trainer Tony Cruz was the only other participant to enjoy multiple successes courtesy to the wins of Circuit Elite and Superb Capitalist.

After Circuit Elite took out the opener under Ho, Cruz bookended the programme thanks to Superb Capitalist’s second front-running victory on the bounce in the Class Three Tseuk Luk Handicap (1,200m).

Elsewhere, Australian jockey Hugh Bowman earned the praise of countryman David Hayes after piloting Lean Hero home in the second section of the Class Four Sheung Hei Handicap (1,650m).

“It was a good effort by the horse, but an even better effort by the jockey,” Hayes said after Bowman settled Lean Hero just behind midfield, picked through heavy traffic in the straight and snagged the race in the final strides.

“It was a split-second decision by Hugh. He got out of trouble and was good enough to win the race – all credit to Hugh. The horse is only three, so hopefully, he’ll come back as a good four-year-old.”