Never let it be said Zac Purton didn't look at last year's HKSAR Chief Executive Cup with a cold, professional eye even as he collected his trophy.
Supreme Win got up in the last bound for Purton to win the traditional opening-day feature sprint, just getting the better of the Derek Cruz-trained Cerise Cherry, who had the race shot to pieces until a nightmare wide run took its toll in the final strides.
Yesterday Purton made sure there was no repeat and he gave the eight-year-old a perfect trip that was enough to see off Best Eleven by just under a length, with a gap back to favourite Destined For Glory (Douglas Whyte).
"Cerise Cherry was the first horse I rang for when I got back to Hong Kong this season," Purton said.
"There was no doubt he should have won this race last year, I was very lucky to beat him, and I thought he'd be a good ride again. Even though he was rated seven points higher this time, he'd won another race and finished second in the Hong Kong Sprint since, so he had earned the extra weight. Derek gets his horses fit and ready to go early, and I was lucky enough to get the ride."
And lucky enough to have what was an ideal race-pan, sitting behind the lead as Go Baby Go (Tye Angland) and Leading City (Derek Leung Ka-chun) softened each other up in front.
"The pace was on all the way, I got the nice cuddle off them and was able to come with one run, which is what this horse likes," Purton said. "He isn't the easiest to ride - he wanted to lay in a bit in the straight and run round but that could be just his years."
Cruz will again take a path towards the Longines Hong Kong Sprint with underrated Cerise Cherry, who took his earnings past HK$13 million.
"We hit the front too early last year, so I told Zac to just take a sit on him and give him a chance. He gave a very good kick in the straight," said Cruz. "I'll get him freshened up again for those big races - he can run the same race again. I just need to keep him running fresh, keep him away from running too often or he can taper off."
Whyte and trainer John Moore both noted the plan to keep Destined To Glory to shorter races now, for the sake of his breathing, just needed tweaking. "He ran well but I feel he is crying for 1,400m," Whyte said. "When he won 1,200m at Happy Valley in July, they went hard and came back to him, and the give in the ground helped him too. But today I followed the winner and just didn't have the turn of foot to go with good 1,200m sprinters. He worked home late but he found it short."
Moore said Destined For Glory would likely move up to 1,400m in the National Day Cup.
Angland said Go Baby Go's effort for fourth was excellent after getting no peace in the lead.
"Leading City never left him alone and, considering the pattern as the day went on was to get away from the inside, he's done a good job," he said.
