Zac Purton put a month of frustration behind him and celebrated his new-season licensing with a sparkling treble at Happy Valley last night - his first meeting back after completing a careless riding suspension. Purton hit the ground running with an old mate, veteran Watchman in the evening opener for Class Five horses, chimed in with another repeat winner in Treasure Raiders for Paul O'Sullivan in the third and completed a 1,488-1 three timer with Diamond Era in the sixth. Those three wins from just five rides on the evening were sufficient to give him an upset victory over hot favourite Douglas Whyte in the Jockey Challenge. Purton was a member of the 12 bracket 'Others' in the new bet type and in all likelihood gave the Jockey Club a skinner, with 'Others' opening at $20 and drifting to $25 at the close of betting. But Whyte had some cause to celebrate. He achieved a century for the season - 100 winners - with his win on Express Win in the last race. Purton admitted later his frustration levels have been high recently, spending more time on the bench than in the saddle, but to his credit he never allowed the outside world to see those emotions. 'It's been a tough time, quite frustrating actually, because I've come through a period of three suspensions and only rode for two meetings in May,' Purton explained. 'I was pleased the Licensing Committee invited me back next season and I've been champing at the bit, waiting to resume. This was my first meeting back, so to ride a winner first-up was great. To end up winning three from five rides, and beat Douglas in the Jockey Challenge, is a lot more than I expected. 'All in all, it was a very satisfying night at the office,' he added with a smile. Ricky Yiu Poon-fie has enjoyed a fruitful association with Purton this season, mainly through the deeds of Happy Valley Milion Challenge hero Elfhelm, and it was he who provided Purton's third winner Diamond Era ($132). 'Zac is a good rider and has handled the Hong Kong scene very well,' Yiu said. 'He's only young, but has shown a lot of maturity and I'm sure he's just going to keep getting better. 'This horse [Diamond Era] was having only his second start for me tonight so we have been feeling our way with him a bit. The main thing I've been trying to do with him is get him as sound as possible, doing a lot of light work with him and always making sure he's properly warmed up before he gallops.' Douglas Whyte narrowly failed to win his eighth Jockey Challenge from 11 attempts but still managed to rack up a double with Keen Soul for Me Tsui Yu-sak in the second and Express Win for Dennis Yip Chor-hong in the evening's feature race, the Happy Valley Vase. 'That was very satisfying tonight because I rode him in a barrier trial recently and told Dennis he was looking for the mile now, and advised him not to worry about sprint races any more,' Whyte explained. 'He's led and won easily tonight, but I'm sure he doesn't have to lead to win. I'd quite like to ride him in behind them and I'm confident that would suit him just as well.' Caspar Fownes checked in with his mandatory Valley winner when Brett Prebble led throughout on Sou Ma Tam in the Class Five sprint. The win brought up 50 wins for Fownes and it was the second straight season he has made the half century. The Thursday meeting was well received by horse players, who gave the Jockey Club a 10.5 per cent increase in turnover on the corresponding meeting (a Wednesday) last year. 'Our turnover was HK$808 million and it was our second-biggest Happy Valley meeting of the year,' said an elated executive director of racing, Bill Nader, who also reported a quiet night in the stipendiary stewards' room, with no suspensions handed out.