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SHANE DYE, ZAC PURTON, DARREN BEADMAN \/ Sha Tin \/\/ 2007 \/\/\/ Photo by Mark Dadswell (Getty Images)<\/p>\nZAC PURTON walks past a custom-built trophy cabinet \u2013 though the word cabinet undersells it. It is more like the wing of a small museum: a series of thick shelves taking out an entire side of the dining room wall in his Racecourse Gardens apartment.<\/p>\n
The shelves need to be strong. They carry the spoils of 18 years in the city. Nine jockeys\u2019 championship trophies sit centrally. A special trophy for breaking Douglas Whyte\u2019s all-time record for most wins in Hong Kong. Group 1 mementos from across Asia. And the most recent addition \u2013 a special touch \u2013 a hand-painted poster of Ka Ying Rising drawn by daughter Roxy.<\/p>\n
Purton is at ease, he has just ridden Ka Ying Rising in a barrier trial \u2013 the all-conquering sprinter was preparing for what would be a record-extending 19th consecutive victory. He takes a seat on the sofa in front of the old trophy cabinet, and it is easy to think that it has always been like this \u2013 the self-proclaimed, and undisputed, King of Hong Kong racing. But in front of Purton on the coffee table are two racebooks that tell a different story: one of adversity, challenge, and a Hong Kong career that nearly wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
One racebook is from the week we sat down for this interview \u2013 the 56th meeting of the 2025\/26 season. Purton is again the runaway leader in the championship, his 87 wins at this stage more than double the nearest jockey.<\/p>\n
The other is from 56 meetings into his rookie season, and it provides a snapshot of the struggles of a 23-year-old a long way from home and floundering in a scene where a cohort of world-class riders dominated.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me guess \u2013 12 wins,\u201d Purton says, before flicking the page to the jockeys\u2019 championship table. He is close. But the numbers tell only one part of the story \u2013 13 wins from 301 rides, a strike rate of 4.3 per cent, the lowest of any jockey on a star-laden roster. Another part of the story is the names themselves. Douglas Whyte sits atop with 74 winners. Brett Prebble is chasing hard. Felix Coetzee. Darren Beadman. Gerald Mosse. Then there are the visitors: Christophe Soumillon, Olivier Peslier, Shane Dye \u2013 who had departed earlier that season.<\/p>\n
Purton runs his finger down the page and exhales.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople don\u2019t understand. Look at the list of jockeys that were here at that time. Whyte, Coetzee, Beadman, Mosse, Doleuze, Boss, Soumillon, Saint-Martin, Delpech, Nunes, Dye. It\u2019s a solid list. And those jockeys, it\u2019s not just their reputation or their ability \u2013 they had great connections with the owners and the trainers. Why are they going to put some kid on that they\u2019ve never seen ride? Someone they don\u2019t know? Why would they put him on, over someone that\u2019s delivered for them time and time again?\u201d<\/p>\n
It is a reasonable question. And one that took Purton years to answer.<\/p>\n
The Room He Walked Into<\/p>\n
Shane Dye was one of those names on the page. A superstar from New Zealand\u2019s Matamata via Sydney that carried a rockstar swagger and celebrity status. He was second in the championship in Hong Kong \u2013 battling with Whyte \u2013\u00a0and since retirement has followed the scene closely as a punter; he knows the ecosystem as well as anyone. He was also one of the established riders whose presence made Purton\u2019s early years so difficult.<\/p>\n
Dye\u2019s assessment of Purton is blunt, generous and revealing all at once.<\/p>\n
\u201cZac wasn\u2019t born to be a jockey. Shane Dye was born to be a jockey. James McDonald was born to be a jockey. Zac wasn\u2019t. He\u2019s made himself good. He was never a superstar. He\u2019s ended up a superstar through hard work and determination,\u201d Dye says.<\/p>\n
It is a distinction that matters. In a sport that fetishises and rewards natural talent \u2013 the prodigy apprentices put on pathways to greatness, the kids who can do it all before they can shave \u2013 Purton\u2019s story is different. Sure, he won the senior Brisbane premiership as an apprentice, but he was a long way behind Darren Beadman in Sydney, and when he landed in Hong Kong, he had none of the aura that the established riders carried. He was raw material in a room full of finished products.<\/p>\n
The Education Of Losing<\/p>\n
What is fascinating about those early challenges is what they forged in Purton \u2013 the iron will we see today is a direct result of the defeats, of bitter disappointment and failure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn life, you learn far more in defeat than you do in victory,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen things are going good, you can be a little bit complacent or you struggle to learn and grow. But when things aren\u2019t going well, that\u2019s when you\u2019ve got to work out how to be successful. Even now, I probably remember more of my defeats than I do my victories. Because the defeats hurt more.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt instilled that hunger in me to grind every day. I didn\u2019t get anything handed to me at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grinding, for a jockey in Hong Kong, is a specific kind of pain. You turn up every morning to ride trackwork. You ride the horses in trials. You ride them in races. And then, as soon as they are ready to win, you get replaced by someone with better connections.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking \u2026 And that happened to me time and time and time again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purton pauses \u2013 then adds that what compounds the challenge of being at the wrong end of the championship standings is that you are riding horses with very little chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very, very hard to look good on a horse that\u2019s going backwards. You feel more tired than the horse, because it\u2019s giving you nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the standings don\u2019t tell you is the starting price of all those horses I was having to ride. I was pushing around horses that just weren\u2019t competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
SHANE DYE, ZAC PURTON, DARREN BEADMAN \/ Sha Tin \/\/ 2007 \/\/\/ Photo by Mark Dadswell (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Racebook-and-Standings-1024x955.jpg\")
OFFICIAL RACE PROGRAM; JOCKEY STANDINGS \/ 2008 \/\/\/ Photos supplied<\/p>\n
Phuket<\/p>\n
There was a moment, early on, when it nearly ended.<\/p>\n
Purton and his wife Nicole took a holiday to Phuket during a break in the season. They had originally come to Hong Kong for six months. Sitting by the pool, the opportunities drying up, Purton turned to Nicole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to her, \u2018I\u2019m not getting any opportunities. I think it\u2019s time we go home.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018Why? I\u2019m having so much fun. I think you should just stay a bit longer.\u2019 And I was like, okay, whatever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purton smiles at the memory. Nicole was naive to the depth of the struggle, he says \u2013 oblivious to what was really going on. But that was the point.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe thought I was doing well and just needed more opportunities. She was right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shane Dye, unsolicited, makes the same point.<\/p>\n
\u201cNicole Purton has a lot to do with it. She\u2019s the strength. If Zac had got his way, he would have left Hong Kong early. She made him stay. She\u2019s huge for him. More than people realise.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nicole Purton, the daughter of Hall of Fame jockey Jim Cassidy, had grown up around racing and understood the rhythms of a career better than she perhaps knew. Her optimism kept Purton in Hong Kong. Without it, there are no records, no championships, no breaking of Whyte\u2019s record. Just a talented kid from Coffs Harbour who gave it a crack and went home.<\/p>\n
The Men Who Took His Rides<\/p>\n
The reprieve gave Purton something he had not had before: time. Time to watch, to study, to learn from the men who were taking his rides.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about riding against those jockeys week in, week out was the opportunity to watch them, study them, and learn. They came from different parts of the world, so they were all a little bit different. But they all had these traits that I was able to watch and study.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purton talks about each with the specificity of someone who was paying close attention \u2013 in the race itself, not just on the replay screen.<\/p>\n
Gerald Mosse had a beautiful and unique style to the way he rode. Where Australian jockeys forced horses into position, Mosse was unconcerned about where he sat \u2013\u00a0and that was often three-wide. He found a rhythm with the horse, got them breathing, got them flowing. For a young rider schooled in the urgency of Australian racing, it looked alien.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go from a place in Australia where you\u2019re sort of forcing horses into a position quite often, whereas he wasn\u2019t worried about where he was. He was just finding a rhythm with the horse. He was more about getting them to breathe. He was a lovely, patient rider.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eric Saint-Martin was similar \u2013 a long rein, getting horses to relax, always wanting to arrive on the line at the last possible moment. \u201cIt\u2019s like he was a movie star that loved the dramatic finish,\u201d Purton says.<\/p>\n
Felix Coetzee left the deepest tactical mark. Purton calls him probably the best front-running rider he has ever seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cFelix had a great clock in his head. The mistake a lot of jockeys make when they lead is they try to go too slow. They choke the horses down, they get them out of rhythm. Whereas he would get them in a lovely rhythm \u2013 he might be running on standard time, sometimes even inside standard, but the horse would keep finding for him. There\u2019s a real art to riding leaders. A lot of jockeys get it wrong because they try to strangle them. He was brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
And then Christophe Soumillon \u2013 three stints in Hong Kong across those years and, in Purton\u2019s words, phenomenal. It was more than ability. Soumillon carried a presence.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the jockeys\u2019 room, you knew he was there because of the way he held himself. He didn\u2019t take any prisoners. If something was upsetting him, you knew about it. That fiery side \u2013 but that\u2019s the competitor in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purton was studying them all. Not just their technique but their composure, their tactical instincts, the subtleties you could only feel in the trenches beside them. He was being made, one race \u2013\u00a0one defeat \u2013 at a time.<\/p>\n
Ten Wins in A Month<\/p>\n
The turning point for Purton arrived through another rider\u2019s misfortune.<\/p>\n
At the back end of that first season, Glen Boss had been riding for trainer Ricky Yiu. The relationship soured. Yiu came to Purton and asked if he would like to do more riding for him. Purton had nobody to ride for. He said yes. He rode 10 winners in that final month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you ride 10 winners in a month in Hong Kong, you\u2019re absolutely flying. We have 10 months in the season. Ten winners every month is 100 for the season. There\u2019s only been three jockeys in history to ride 100 or more in a season. So that\u2019s a good barometer of a successful month.\u201d<\/p>\n
But momentum in Hong Kong doesn\u2019t carry the way it does elsewhere. Purton came back for his second season and found himself starting from scratch.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t as if the second season was like, bang, here we are, away. I came back and it\u2019s like I had to start at the start again and grind again.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the Yiu door cracked open, though, was something more lasting than one hot month. Purton became one of the few Western jockeys before him to build genuine relationships with the Chinese trainers. It was born out of necessity \u2013 the expat trainers weren\u2019t giving him opportunities \u2013 but what started as survival became something more productive. He formed partnerships with Yiu, Danny Shum, Dennis Yip, and Francis Lui, riding for them when others overlooked them and growing together.<\/p>\n
\u201cDanny Shum\u2019s a great example. For years and years I told everyone how good I thought he was. He\u2019d gone through a rough patch, his numbers were down, and he was climbing his way back up. But for me, he was a brilliant trainer to ride for. He knew his horses inside out. His horses always turned up. It\u2019s only been since Romantic Warrior that everyone now respects what he can do. But for me, he\u2019s always been that trainer. People just didn\u2019t see it at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The relationship with Lui is instructive in a different way. Purton doesn\u2019t ride a huge amount for Lui day-to-day \u2013 Lui waits late to declare runners and by then Purton is generally booked. But when it mattered most, when Lui was going for the trainers\u2019 championship, he put Purton on everything. Purton got him over the line.<\/p>\n
It speaks to one of the less visible skills that separate the great jockeys from the merely talented: the ability to navigate a system that rewards trust and punishes disloyalty.<\/p>\n
![\"Zac](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/PHOTO-2026-04-22-12-09-41-1024x637.jpg\")
ZAC PURTON, WINFRIED ENGLEBRECHT-BRESGES \/ Happy Valley \/\/ 2025 \/\/\/ Photo by HKJC<\/p>\n
![\"Zac](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Zac-and-Nicole-ring-thebell.jpeg\")
ZAC & NICOLE PURTON \/ Happy Valley \/\/ 2025 \/\/\/ Photo by HKJC<\/p>\n
Endless\u00a0<\/p>\n
Purton is reflective when the conversation turns to the psychological demands of riding in Hong Kong \u2013 demands that have broken others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe criticism comes from everywhere. The stewards, constantly asking questions. The newspapers and commentators. Social media. The trainers, the owners. Every time their horse doesn\u2019t come in, they\u2019ve got to blame someone. Most of the time it\u2019s the jockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s endless. It really, really is. So you need to build up resilience. And ultimately, you\u2019ve got to learn to park it aside. You\u2019ve got to be confident in your ability, your processes. You\u2019ve got to back yourself. You can\u2019t be swayed by any outside influences.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is the quality that Dye admires most. In a sport where jockeys hedge and equivocate \u2013 talking up $2 favourites they know have no chance, keeping punters, trainers and owners happy with empty optimism \u2013 Purton says what he thinks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s opinionated, which I love,\u201d Dye says. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the only jockeys I actually take what they say seriously, because what he says is how it is. He can be riding a $2 favourite and he\u2019ll get on TV and say, \u2018I don\u2019t like it, because of this and that.\u2019 Whereas any other jockey would say, \u2018Great chance.\u2019 But in the back of their mind, they know something and they won\u2019t say it. Zac says it how it is. And it\u2019s great for the sport.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That same hardness has changed the room, too. The jockeys\u2019 room is, by Purton\u2019s account, the most harmonious it has been during his time in Hong Kong. Part of that is generational \u2013 younger faces, a changing of the guard. Part of it is deliberate. Purton organises the golf days and the boat trips, brings the room together in a way that didn\u2019t happen when he was the outsider. The kid who walked into a fractured room is now the one trying to keep it whole.<\/p>\n
He has also played the role of advocate for improved safety and better facilities \u2013\u00a0 earning a begrudging respect from the rivals he beats week-in, week-out, for his willingness to speak up in the semi-regular jockeys\u2019 meetings with officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Other Side<\/p>\n
For all the trophies behind him, Purton says he probably remembers more of his defeats than his victories. He compares it to baseball \u2013 even the best hitter fails 70 per cent of the time and gets into the Hall of Fame. Jockeys are the same. The defeats hurt more, but they teach more. For Purton, they became fuel.<\/p>\n
It is a mindset that took him from 13 winners in his first 56 meetings to the greatest career in Hong Kong racing history. From the lowest strike rate on a page full of legends to the man who outlasted and outperformed them all. And it is a mindset that has bred an unexpected empathy in him \u2013 because he is now the jockey on the other side of the equation, the one who gets the call to replace someone else.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m in the position now where I am the one that\u2019s the beneficiary of someone else doing all the work. And I see the looks on their faces and how hard it is for them. I know exactly how they feel. I\u2019ve been there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sometimes he will go to a young jockey and tell them directly that he has been asked to ride their horse. Not because he has to. Because he remembers what it was like to sit there waiting, hoping, not knowing \u2013 missing out on other rides in the meantime.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the time they\u2019re not taking other rides because they\u2019re hanging off, waiting, hoping. It\u2019s actually better to be told, \u2018You\u2019re not on it.\u2019 No problem. Move on. Find another ride. But when you\u2019re sitting there waiting for something that\u2019s already gone, you miss out again.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the coffee table, the two racebooks sit side by side. One from 2008 and one from 2026. The same meeting number, the same sport, the same man. Everything else has changed.<\/p>\n
Nicole was right. He just needed more opportunities. \u220e<\/p>\n
![\"Hayes](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HayesDynasty-1-1024x683.jpg\")
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Adam Pengilly<\/p>\n
House Of Hayes: Legacy, Loss And The Rebirth Of A Racing Dynasty<\/p>\n
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