Purton breaks Whyte's record

Bets.com.au Staff

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Last updated: Wed 22 Jan 2025 16:05

Bets.com.au Staff 22 Jan 2025

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Zac Purton surpasses Douglas Whyte's record with 1,814 wins
Purton equals record in Race 3, breaks it in Race 9 at Happy Valley
Began legacy by winning his first championship in 2013/14, ending Whyte's 13-year reign

Zac Purton made history at Happy Valley on January 22. (Getty)

Zac Purton is now Hong Kong's winningest jockey, with the Australian hoop breaking Douglas Whyte's record of 1813 wins.

Going into the midweek program, the seven-time Hong Kong Champion Jockey needed two wins to break the record and he'd been in great form leading into the history-making night, having recorded 70 wins for the season before the January 22 card

Purton equalled Whyte's record in the third race of the Happy Valley meeting when steering the John Size-trained Spirit Of Peace to victory and in Race 5, he briefly appeared home on Sight Happy before the odds-on favourite was rolled by 40/1 outsider, Happy Trio.

Another runner-up finish kept celebrations on hold in the seventh, where Aestheticism had to settle for second behind Star Mac, who received a pearler of ride from Brenton Avdulla.

Money came for View Of The World in the last and the progressive four-year-old didn't let punters or the scriptwriters down, with Purton bringing up win number 1814 in Hong Kong aboard the favourite.

Purton broke Douglas Whyte's 13-season reign at the top when taking out his first jockeys' championship in 2013/14 and a famous rivalry then followed with Joao Moreira, with the "Magic Man" a four-time Hong Kong Champion Jockey and one of only three riders to have ridden than 1,000 winners in Hong Kong.