'Local' Hong Kong hero | Coffs Coast Horses | Horse Riding, Horseback in Coffs Coast

Brad Greenshields | 3rd July 2009

IT'S a long way from doing an apprenticeship at the Coffs Harbour race track to becoming a star jockey in Hong Kong but it's a track that Zac Purton has successfully ridden.

Purton has ended the Hong Kong season with a bang, riding a winning treble at the last meeting at Sha Tin to finish third in the jockeys' premiership.

South African Douglas Whyte won his ninth title with 96 winners with fellow Australian Brett Prebble second on 79.

Purton's late treble took him to 43 wins and moved him past the great Darren Beadman on the jockey's list.

Ten winners at the last five meetings of the season will see Purton go into the new racing year with unprecedented momentum.

It seems like only yesterday that a young Purton rode his first winner but it was actually back in May 2000 when he steered home Magic Zap at the Armidale track.

Riding then as an apprentice where he was learning his trade under the watchful eye of Trevor Hardy, nobody ever doubted the amount of ability that Purton possessed.

A popular home-town win in the Coffs Harbour Gold Cup aboard Legerdemain in 2003 was virtually his swansong as a local rider as he was already beating the best around by that stage.

Winning a Brisbane jockey's premiership while still an apprentice simply proved what everyone in Coffs Harbour racing thought.

Now 26 years old, Purton is one of the most in demand hoops in the country and is now quickly on his way to international stardom as well.

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