Zac Purton maintained his four-win lead in the jockeys' championship with a double yesterday, and while he is relishing his growing rivalry with second-placed Douglas Whyte, the Australian says he is well aware of the realities of wresting the title from the 12-time defending champion.
Whyte matched the Australian with a double of his own, but perhaps an even bigger reminder of how high a mountain Purton needs to climb was the three wins produced by Whyte's main supplier of quality rides, trainer John Size.
"John Size's support is a massive advantage," Purton said. "He does seem to go to the races every week with four or five favourites, so it's pretty hard to compete with him.
"Size is only just starting to warm up and he has got a lot of good horses coming out and that will help Douglas get a roll on."
If Purton - who also pointed to the fact that yesterday was meeting number 17 of an 83-meeting season - is to mount a serious challenge for the title, he believes he will need to maintain pressure during the middle part of the term, when replacement jockeys dilute the overall quality of most freelance rider's bookings, while Whyte is supplied with a steady stream of winners from Size.
"When the visiting jockeys come, it throws the dynamics out," Purton explained. "They become the flavour of the month, and take away a few opportunities for the freelance riders, everyone wants to put them on, but Douglas' rides stay consistent. Once those jockeys go home, history has shown that I finish strongly as the rides from the local trainers start to come back.
"The season is going good at the moment, especially considering I haven't got the backing of the major stables, I've got to rely on them giving me the opportunities, but I'm making the most of them at the moment.
"I feel like I'm riding extremely well, and it is showing in the results I'm having, if I can keep it going, then we'll see, it could be interesting."
Paul O'Sullivan had a frustrating day with short-priced debutante Sunny Pearl going under and that horse's older half-brother, New Vision, a desperately unlucky second in the day's feature, but at least Purton delivered him a Class Five win with Able Magic.
"He hadn't been running too badly up in grade," Purton said.
"He can do a few things wrong at times, but today when he appeared to be over-racing, that wasn't the horse's fault entirely, he is a difficult ride, but they really put the anchor out in front and the whole field concertinaed, there was a chain reaction right through the field but he picked himself up nicely."
Winning Leader completed Purton's double, and trainer Dennis Yip Chor-hong hopeful that, in time, his four-year-old will furnish into a nice stayer.
"He is a bit weak right now to get further, but he just needs time to mature," Yip said. "Getting 1,800m or 2,000m will be the aim for him eventually."
Purton called the son of Rock Of Gibralter "a work in progress" that was "six to 12 months away."
