The completion of this Sunday’s Sha Tin meeting will mark the halfway point of the 2024-25 season and the time seems right to check in on how things stand after five enthralling months of racing.

There’s a familiar face at the top of the riding ranks, while the race for the trainers’ title is wide open and the Horse of the Year battle could be one of the most even in years.

Purton powers on

So much has been made of Zac Purton’s bettering of Douglas Whyte’s all-time Hong Kong win record that the superb season the Australian is compiling has gone somewhat under the radar.

Purton’s double at Happy Valley on Wednesday night took him to 82 victories from the first 43 meetings of the season, meaning he’s on track to ride about 168 winners.

Purton’s haul of 20 victories in January represented his best month of the season so far and it’s certainly not too much of a stretch to think he could find that extra half a gear needed to give his own single-season win record of 179 a shake.

Purton is a full 20 winners ahead of where he sat at this point of last season and he’s one of a swag of jockeys, including Hugh Bowman, Luke Ferraris and Matthew Poon Ming-fai, who are travelling better than they were 12 months ago.

The biggest sliders are Karis Teetan, who has 23 less wins than at this stage of the 2023-24 campaign, Angus Chung Yik-lai and Alexis Badel.

Trainers trade blows

While the drama of last season’s trainers’ title fight may never be replicated – Francis Lui Kin-wai won four of the last five races of the term to pip Pierre Ng Pang-chi by one win – things are certainly perfectly poised this season.

With 46 winners, the barnstorming Ng led by 14 from Lui approaching the halfway mark of the 2023-24 campaign, with Ricky Yiu Poon-fai another four victories back in third.

This campaign, however, things have been much more evenly spread and there are no fewer than 10 trainers within 10 wins of leader Danny Shum Chap-shing’s 29 successes.

Ng and David Hayes sit on 28 while Yiu, John Size and Mark Newnham are close behind on 26.

This campaign’s biggest improvers have been second-season trainers Newnham and Cody Mo Wai-kit, while David Eustace has hit the ground running in his debut Hong Kong term and Ng has been the one whose output has decreased the most.

Down the bottom of the table, everyone is on track to meet the newest version of the Jockey Club’s trainers’ criteria – 14 wins for single-site handlers and 16 for those with a Conghua base – except Jimmy Ting Koon-ho, who is on track for a second consecutive strike after only five winners so far.

While it would require a third strike to endanger Ting’s career, Benno Yung Tin-pang – who continues to undergo treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia – could be forced into retirement at the end of the season after turning 66 in December.

His departure would be offset by the expected arrival of South African trainer Brett Crawford, which is poised to be made official on Friday.

Trio a class above

The six Group One victories achieved by Hong Kong horses this season have been spread evenly between three horses – Romantic Warrior, Voyage Bubble and Ka Ying Rising.

As it stands, Romantic Warrior has his nose in front in the Horse of the Year running thanks to victories in the city’s richest race, the Hong Kong Cup (2,000m), and glory overseas in the Jebel Hatta (1,800m) in Dubai last month.

However, Romantic Warrior will next run in the Group One Saudi Cup (1,800m), tackling the dirt for the first time, and is unlikely to race in Hong Kong again this season.

There will be no easy kills for Romantic Warrior abroad and if the highest-earning racehorse in history doesn’t win again this season, it very much opens the door for Voyage Bubble and Ka Ying Rising, either of whom could easily finish the season with four elite-level successes and a maiden Horse of the Year gong.

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