Zac Purton riding high in Hong Kong

Champion Australian jockey Zac Purton arrived in Sha Tin as a raw young talent in 2007. He endured some difficult times early on, as he sought to make his mark in a tough arena, then dominated by South African Douglas Whyte and international stars like Brett Prebble, Felix Coetzee, Darren Beadman, Gérald Mossé, Olivier Doleuze, Glen Boss, Eric Saint-Martin and Christophe Soumillon.

“It was incredibly difficult to get going here then. There were so many good jockeys and they were all in front of me when it came to getting rides,” he recalled. “The competition was tough then and it’s still tough.”

More than a decade later, he is pretty confident that he has earned his place at the top of the pile. He is now a celebrity in the Chinese region where horse racing is the number one spectator sport. His image appears on billboards and in ads all over the city, and he is hard-pressed to go anywhere without getting recognised. It is a far-cry from his humble beginnings in New South Wales. His career began with a local horse trainer, Trevor Hardy and within four years of his first race while still an apprentice, Purton had won the 2003 Brisbane jockeys’ premiership. He made his move to Asia not long after that, and hasn’t looked back.

The 39-year-old, who is married with two young children, continues to dominate, and may just well be the most successful Aussie import of all time if he takes out his fourth International Jockeys Championship.