Purton, Gordon Lord Byron get acquainted

Friday 2 May 2014, 5:17pm

Trainer Tom Hogan has arrived in Hong Kong to oversee the final preparation of Gordon Lord Byron for the Champions Mile.

And the Irishman was as pleased as jockey Zac Purton ahead of Sunday's Group One race.

"The signs are good," Hogan said. "He was 469 kilos when he ran here in December and he was precisely that weight yesterday morning, not a half kilo more, not a half kilo less."

Purton, who rode Sacred Falls to a 1-1/2 length fourth behind Gordon Lord Byron in last month's Group One George Ryder Stakes in Sydney, jumped aboard the visitor for the first time on Friday.

"It was just a light piece of work, to get a feel for him and open up his lungs," Purton said.

"He's a well-balanced animal, beautiful to ride and he felt strong underneath me."

Purton admitted barrier 13 was "not ideal" and he would discuss tactics with the trainer.

Hogan was not concerned about the barrier even after he was told no horse had won the race from a double-figure gate.

"Perhaps we'll just have to make a bit of history," he said.

"We've got Hong Kong's top jockey on board and he chased the ride and got the tick of approval from Craig (Williams) who rode him in Australia.

"I've watched him before and he rides very well and he was happy with the horse this morning.

"I'm happy with him too and hopefully I'm still happy with him come Sunday evening."

Australian Purton is poised to win the Hong Kong premiership held for so long by Douglas Whyte.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »