Lyle Hewitson lit up Sha Tin with a dominant treble on Monday while Zac Purton secured his seventh Hong Kong jockeys’ championship thanks to a double of his own.

After booting home a race-to-race brace for Chris So Wai-yin, Hewitson sealed the 1,365-1 treble with his fifth win aboard Ching in the Class Three Better Future Handicap (1,600m).

While the 2023-24 campaign has not gone as smoothly as Hewitson was anticipating, the 26-year-old was delighted to collect his first three-timer since Boxing Day.

“To go and get the treble was pretty special after what’s been a pretty slow time,” Hewitson said. “I think it’s overdue. I had a lot of horses just getting beaten and a lot of seconds.

“I thought I had a good card and you need things to fall into place to have one winner let alone two or three, so it was a fantastic evening.”

Hewitson opened his account for the afternoon when he speared Flying High through a tight gap in the Class Three CMA 90th Anniversary Cup (1,000m) and immediately returned to the winner’s enclosure courtesy of Parterre’s Class Four Serving The Community Handicap (1,200m) triumph.

“It was a stroke of luck with Flying High,” Hewitson said. “Unfortunately when Matthew [Chadwick] was suspended, I gave Chis a call and this was the obvious race for the horse.

“Parterre has been so honest, he’s been in great form and last time he bumped into a good one and ran a solid race. Today, he got things a bit more in his favour and he dominated from the front. He did a great job under top weight and Chris prepared both horses beautifully.”

Hewitson’s mid-race move to sit on the coattails of the leader paid dividends in the finale, with Ching proving a willing partner to prevail by a neck.

“Ching is probably one of my favourite horses in Hong Kong,” Hewitson said. “To round off the day on him was great.”

Zac Purton was also celebrating on Monday as the 41-year-old secured his seventh premiership with a brace of his own.

Dominant throughout the 2023-24 campaign, Purton moved mathematically out of Karis Teetan’s reach when he saluted aboard Bottomuptogether in the Class Three Sportsmanship Handicap (1,200m).

He joins Basil Marcus and Australia’s Gary Moore on seven titles. The only jockey with more championships than Purton is Douglas Whyte (13).

“None of them are easy,” Purton said. “It was a difficult start but we sort of worked our way into the season and things are going nicely at the moment.”

After he opened his account on Monday aboard the Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained debutant Amazing Run, Purton sealed his double on Frankie Lor Fu-chuen’s Bottomuptogether to move to 122 victories for the season, 40 clear of Teetan with 39 races remaining.

Three-year-old Bottomuptogether assumed the lead and scorched to a two-and-three-quarter-length win to maintain his unbeaten record, with Lor already turning his sights to next season’s campaign.

“It was his first time stepping up to 1,200m but for me that was no problem,” Lor said. “At the turn he was quite keen but in the straight he was better when he got the lead in front.

“Next season maybe he can get even better. I think we’ll look at the Classic Mile but it looks like he can handle 1,600m.”