David Eustace takes his first runners to Happy Valley on Wednesday night and he hopes the booking of a certain seven-time champion jockey can help him snare his first Hong Kong winner.

The 32-year-old has so far had no trouble accessing some of Hong Kong’s top jockeys, with Andrea Atzeni and Karis Teetan his riders so far, and he will team up with Zac Purton for the first time at the midweek meeting.

Purton jumps aboard Swift Ascend in the first section of the Class Four Harbour View Handicap (1,200m) and will have gate three at his disposal aboard a galloper who has trialled solidly ahead of his seasonal return.

“It’s obviously great to get him, there’s no one better around the Valley,” Eustace said of Purton. “It’s nice to draw three with Zac on and I won’t be pinning him down too much.

“He knows the place better than me and it would be foolish to be giving him too many instructions. I’ll leave it up to him and he can work it out after the jump.”

Swift Ascend began his Hong Kong career with five runs for Douglas Whyte, producing a best finish of third over the Sha Tin 1,200m and a seventh in his only Valley run.

He’s not the only Eustace runner to draw well for Wednesday night, with Speedy Fortune jumping from gate six under Atzeni in the Class Five Man Cheung Handicap (1,000m).

Second under Purton behind the smart Lucky Encounter in a recent Valley trial, Speedy Fortune could only manage one win from 23 starts for John Size but did place five times last season.

“Zac was keen to ride him but I switched him to 1,000m because he was nice and sharp [in his trial],” Eustace said.

“He hasn’t had a lot of racing at the Valley previously so I was keen to try him there over the 1,000m. He may find it a touch too sharp, but if he doesn’t it opens up more options for him.”

Charity Gain rounds out Eustace’s midweek hand, the four-year-old tackling the Class Four Man Yiu Handicap (1,650m) under Vincent Ho Chak-yiu after finishing 13th over the Sha Tin 1,400m in his only career start.

“I think he’s shown enough in his two trials, albeit he has certainly worked like he wants a little bit further again,” Eustace said.

“But I think he’ll be sharp enough for a mile. He’ll undoubtedly need the experience around the Valley but I think it made sense to kick off here because there are races for him over 1,800m or 2,000m in three or four weeks and I think he’ll want a bit of time between runs. I think he’s got a future.”

After taking a patient approach to his first season in Hong Kong, Eustace has been happy with how his first runners have performed over the past week.

“I think they’ve all run to expectations,” he said of Noble Win (eighth), Jumbo Fortune (second) and Apache Pass (sixth).

“I thought Apache Pass was pretty brave up in grade in a pretty tough race and the two last Tuesday ran how I thought they would, so there’s consistency there and hopefully that continues on Wednesday.”