It’s almost like saying, “Mate, let’s not get too ahead of yourself”. Maybe it is.
When thinking how well Silvestre de Sousa is fitting into Hong Kong and Hong Kong racing during this particular “tour of duty” by the Brazilian and three time former champion jockey of Britain, The Zac Man ups the ante and treats everyone to four seamless masterclasses in race riding.
From what I saw, and at a time when “whip rules” are back in the news following Blake Shinn losing out on winning a race at Flemington on Saturday for “excessive use of the whip”, not once did The Zac Man resort to using “the persuader”.
Neither did Jye McNeil and Lyle Hewitson when riding out their winners on Sunday.
In the competitive world of Hong Kong racing, meanwhile, where this competition to win isn’t confined to the race tracks, it’s not something easy to do.
It requires all the talent needed to win plus the inner resolve that becomes part of an individual’s internal artillery- those who know what else is needed to be up there in a rarefied space.
Unless living in Hong Kong, it’s something often difficult to understand as it requires knowing where the city was as a British colony with racing once a week at Happy Valley on Saturday afternoons, the journey through the past darkly and how it needs to be in sync with the city today.
This is even more difficult to understand as one really doubts that Hong Kong knows what the future might hold.
What’s holding everything together in the city is what might be described as “optimistic caution”.
Let’s just say that we’re hoping for the best, but won’t be fazed if the best still isn’t good enough.
Guess this is the challenge that keeps Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, the CEO of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, keeping on and in line with meeting corporate objectives and priorities.
Both him and The Zac Man, 39, have a form of teamwork one doubts that even they understand- but it’s there.
Theirs is no shallow and choreographed puppet show for the peanut gallery.
At home and half-heartedly watching the races from Shatin last Sunday, what really caught my interest were the dynamics between the champion jockey and CEO during the trophy presentation ceremony that afternoon.
Zac has always been a pretty matter-of-fact kinda guy, and it’s an image that he’s fine-tuned over the many years he’s been in Hong Kong.
Knowing his worth to the Hong Kong racing product, he’s not cocky or arrogant, but he is confident enough to know what he’s achieved, the records he has broken and the new ones that he’s going to set.
If there’s one person in the racing game today he would like to compete against- regularly- and beat -regularly- and on the International stage- regularly- it would undoubtedly be Longines World’s Best Jockey in the very much likeable and down to earth James McDonald.
Zac also knows that nothing lasts forever and how Hong Kong racing gives him a platform he pretty much owns, and which could be the springboard to other opportunities left. There’s not much he hasn’t achieved.
Of course, this must make some nervous, including the Club, because it’s a bit like dealing with Django unchained, Oliver Twist and the Hulk.
Tony Cruz, when a Jockey, Douglas Whyte and Joao Moreira always commanded a certain amount of respect and power in the racing world, but it was a different type of power to what Zac Purton wields and exudes today.
It’s because, these are very different times and it’s not exactly difficult to see how far he’s travelled compared to where some of those who he once rode against in Hong Kong are today.
Maybe they didn’t have the drive nor thought about upping their game and moving still and waiting for things to happen. They didn’t go out there and MAKE things happen.
These days, with none other than the legend that is Tony Cruz being one of his biggest supporters and an unabashed fan, if Zac Purton doesn’t ride a treble at a race meeting, for him, it’s not been a good day at the office.
On Sunday, he rode four winners and with each one of these being a different masterclass.
If there’s a reason why I still watch Hong Kong racing, it’s to follow The Further Adventures Of The Zac Man.
It’s to see, how, no matter what life or the “racing barrier gods” might throw his way, there’s the seeming nonchalance in which he rises to the occasion and makes difficult challenges look easy.
It’s entertaining and it’s entertainment.
It’s what Hong Kong racing needs. Right now, it’s the only real international USP it has, and it’s what’s got at least this viewer interested enough to tune in.
For the Hong Kong Jockey Club, it’s about knowing how to effectively package all this- and more- and start blazing its own NEW international happy trails starring Team Hong Kong.
In doing this, what needs to be taken into consideration is that, especially sports fans, and fans of all leisure activities, are all still on a high after an extraordinary World Cup Finals in Qatar.
The sports entertainment bar has been raised several thousand notches.
Other than the GOAT Lionel Messi of Argentina and Kylian Mbappe of France, there’ve been the heroics from Croatia and Morocco.
All have ushered in a very loud changing of the guard and the stage is set to be tackled by inspiration and with goalposts having to be moved because everything about sports entertainment has changed forever.
This includes horse racing. And horse racing needs to stop looking like an also ran burdened by rules and following a narrative from a very distant past.
That’s just lazily very boring.
#zacpurton #HKracing #horseracing #hongkong #champion #WorldCup2022 #messi #mbappe #sportsentertainment #changingoftheguard
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