Jockey Zac Purton brought up his fifth Hong Kong century at Happy Valley on Wednesday night.
“The target at the start of the season is always 100 and I think if you ride that amount of winners you’ve had a very good season,” Purton said. “It’s not easy to do – only three jockeys in history have done it in Hong Kong.”
The milestone victory came in a thrilling finale, the Class 2 Cedar Handicap (1800m), that pitted the two great rivals in an all-out tussle through the final 500m.
The champion jockey aboard the New Zealand-bred Dances With Dragon (NZ) (Savabeel) slip-streamed jockey Joao Moreira’s back-stretch advance on Enrichment and enjoyed a slingshot run to the lead at the top of the home straight, only for the Brazilian’s mount to rally and press him all the way to the line.
“I just got a lovely drag into the race on his back,” Purton said. “They slowed the pace right off, we made the move at the right time and we had a good battle up the straight. It was good to get one over him again.”
Dances With Dragon raced as Hall of Fame in New Zealand for the Te Akau Racing partnership of Stephen Autridge and Jamie Richards, winning five races including the 2017 Gr.1 Levin Classic (1600m).
