Champion Hong Kong jockey Zac Purton has committed to partnering Singapore star Inferno in the Hong Kong Sprint on December 13.
“I’m in a bit of a rebuilding stage at the top-end. I don’t have a sprinter, obviously Beauty Generation is likely to retire after the Mile, I don’t really have a 2,000m horse and Exultant is still there,” Purton told local press.
“There are some options there [for the Cup], I’m just trying to filter through them at the moment.
“Ideally I wanted to wait until after the trial races to pick a Sprint ride but understandably, there were visa issues and in the times of Covid people have got to look a little further out and that’s why I had to commit [to Inferno] a little bit earlier.”
Purton is looking forward to jumping on Singapore’s best horse, who has won eight of his nine starts and was dominant when scoring easily in last month’s G1 Lion City Cup (1200m).
“He’s obviously got a good record in Singapore – he was impressive last start – and I reached out to Cliff to see if he’d be interested in coming,” Purton said.
“He’s of the same opinion as me, we’re not sure if he’s going to measure up to the horses here in Hong Kong but he can’t do any more than what he’s been doing in Singapore.
“He’s struck a fairly weak year. Apart from a couple of horses, the rest of them look like they probably need to take a step.
“It’s a year where you can probably take a chance and I’m taking a chance by taking the ride on him and let’s hope he can come here and do well for Singapore and roll the big boys in Hong Kong.”
