Zac Purton: The making of a six-time Champion Jockey
There are no shortcuts to success. It comes to those who have put in hours of hard work and who learn from their setbacks. And if anyone exemplifies that, it is Australian jockey Zac Purton.
The New South Wales native has just come out of his most successful riding season yet in 15 years of riding in Hong Kong. Not only has he passed the 1,600 career-win mark, he has achieved that with a record haul of 179 wins during the 2022/23 season, breaking the previous mark of 170 by Joao Moreira.
To top that, Purton has also just bagged his sixth Champion Jockey title at The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s (HKJC) annual Champion Awards. “It’s very satisfying,” says Purton, of his dream season. “It's hard enough to win one race in Hong Kong, let alone being able to win enough races to be able to win a championship.”
Purton credits the support that he gets from the owners and trainers for his achievements. It’s no mean feat, considering the high level of competition from world-class riders and that the racing conditions in Hong Kong are known to be particularly challenging.
The demands on jockeys are stringent: they are required to maintain a strict weight limit and a rigorous training schedule to stay in top condition. Purton’s training regime packs in trackwork six days a week, with barrier trials on Tuesdays and Fridays and race meetings on Wednesdays and Sundays.
When he’s not on a horse, he makes sure he runs, bikes, hikes, swims and also works with a personal trainer. And there’s always time for a bit of yoga and Pilates.
The mental pressure that comes with the competitive nature of sport is also something that Purton has to deal with all the time. With horse racing being such a popular sport in Hong Kong, there is a lot of scrutiny on the jockeys not just from Club stewards but also the public.
Most importantly, each time Purton trots out on track to race, he makes sure he understands his horse and he’s taken into account the track bias, rail positions and has formulated how he thinks the race should be run. Of course, all the planning could go out the window if the trainer or owner has other ideas.
“Then I need to re-evaluate what I think I’m going to do and be able to adapt quickly,” adds Purton, who has seen great success this season with winners such as Lucky Sweynesse and California Spangle.
The 40-year-old has always been able to cope well with criticism and adversity by staying focused and motivated. When things aren’t going well, he spends time doing homework and poring over replays and studying other successful jockeys.
“You can always learn, you can always grow, you can always be better. There are some things I think I can still do better. I'm always trying to be better,” he says.
It was that attitude that brought Purton to Hong Kong in the first place: he saw his favourite jockey Corey Brown and other fellow jockeys moving to the city to race and return to Australia much better sportspeople and felt that a Hong Kong stint would help boost him further up the ranks.
In Hong Kong, he noticed how structured the training was for local apprentices at HKJC’s Apprentice Jockeys’ School compared to his own training in Australia. With a trainer who had the theory but not the experience of actually being a jockey, most of his “training” came from picking up tips from colleagues in the jockeys’ room.
“Here I see Felix (Coetzee, Chief Riding Instructor) and Amy Chan (Executive Manager, Racing Talent Training & Apprentice Jockeys' School Headmistress) with the apprentice jockeys all the time. They're going through their exercise routines. They're going through the race replays with them. They're liaising with the stewards and the Club and the trainers, and they're helping them with everything. The apprentices in Hong Kong are very fortunate,” he says.
Getting his start in Hong Kong turned out to be harder than Purton expected: his biggest challenge was not on the track but actually getting a chance to get on it. As a young jockey that no one knew much about, especially trainers and owners, he had to fight for every opportunity to ride.
“The first season was incredibly difficult. I did wonder whether Hong Kong was the right place for me. But I just felt like when I was given opportunities, I was able to be successful. Fortunately for me, it’s worked out well.”
His record-breaking performance last season was made all the more remarkable given he was riding despite a serious injury to his foot, sustained during a accident while on holiday in the Maldives. Although Purton considers himself lucky to have avoided serious injury on the track, the rider has been plagued by other injuries in the past three years that have made him question if his time in the saddle was up.
Injuries are a part of the sport and he is determined not to let them affect him. He has continued to push through pain barriers because he does not want to let the owners, trainers and his adoring public down. The most important thing, he says, is not to dwell on it.
“If you're going out there on a horse and you're worried about getting hurt … you're worried about what might go wrong, then you should not be out there. You're a danger to yourself and you're a danger to everybody else around you.”
Punters and fans will be happy to know that they will be seeing more of Purton after he signed up to race in Hong Kong for the 2023/24 season. Although he earlier toyed with the idea of retirement, he believes his physical condition will allow him to ride for a while longer.
“I still believe in my mind, if I think I can be at about 80 per cent, I'm good enough to be able to go out there and complete. If I'm at about 70 per cent, then I'm not going to go out there because I don't want to do my connections an injustice.”
Purton has already proven that no matter the odds, he is already ahead of the pack in the world of Hong Kong racing.
