By Alan Carasso
HONG KONG — Two-time reigning Hong Kong champion jockey has been fighting the 'battle of the bulge'–so to speak–over the last two months or so, preparing himself for the ride aboard Aethero (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}), the likely favourite in Sunday's G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin.
The Australian is tied for the most wins in HKIR history on eight victories (along with Gerald Mosse) and completed the set with Time Warp (GB) (Archipenko) in the 2017 Longines Hong Kong Cup. He has at least one winner at the international meeting every year bar one since 2012 and he has an outstanding chance to extend that streak this weekend, though making the 117 pounds has not been easy.
“I've been sitting here with my back to the buffet tables,” Purton quipped to Australian journalist Steve Moran during a Thursday morning press conference. “I don't think comfortably is the right word, there's a lot of pain that goes with it. I knew about seven weeks ago that it was going to be on the cards, so I've continually turned the screw as we got closer to game day.
He continued, “I'm cutting out a lot of things–basically just eating fruit and vegetables, drinking plenty of water, making sure my kidneys are nice and clean. I'll be dehydrating myself as much as I can between now and the weekend, but I feel good. I've done it the right way. I've trained very hard and I'm looking forward to it.”
Purton believes he is sitting on a powder keg of a horse.
“It's the first time in 12 1/2 years here that I can remember riding this weight, so obviously I think he's a special horse and he could be worth it, so hopefully that's the case,” he said. “Whatever training I was doing, I've sort of double or tripled that, cut the meal portions right down. Funny enough, I don't really feel that hungry anymore.”
Aethero is five-from-six lifetime heading into Sunday's race, for which he drew gate 10.
“He's untapped at the moment. What he's doing at the moment has been very impressive,” Purton said. “I haven't seen a horse in my time in Hong Kong do what he's been able to do as quickly as he's done it and get to the level that he's at now. He gets in with a really light weight, which is an advantage. His rating suggests that he is not the best horse in the race yet, but at the weights, it puts him in a good position. I think everything is still ahead of him. We don't know how good he can be.”
Purton describes Aethero as a laid-back animal, but admits sometimes that otherwise-positive habit can be a detriment.
“That trait can be a little bit of his downfall when he's in the gates–he can go to sleep a little bit–so he needs to bounce as quick as he can and get into his rhythm as quick as he can,” he said. “You've just got to hang on and roll with him. But he's not the finished product. Mentally he's still got a lot to learn, I suppose that's one of the good things about him going forward as well.”
Purton has two other sound rides at the weekend, as he goes for back-to-back wins in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase atop Exultant (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) and for a third straight G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile with Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road to Rock {Aus}).
“Exultant has never let us down, he's got a great set of lungs, he's got a big heart. He throws everything he's got out there on the track and it takes a good one to beat him,” he said.
As for two-time reigning horse of the year Beauty Generation, he admits, “The alarm bells are certainly ringing. He hasn't been the horse that we know he was at his last couple of runs…but his body weight is bang-on now, he's going well in the morning, he looks well. It's up to the horse really. If the right horse turns up, he's better than them–we know that. Just have to wait and see.”
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