Zac Purton admits he was feeling the pressure early in the Happy Valley Trophy (1,200m), but after an ice-cool effort to recover and win on At Moment In Time, he was getting plenty of plaudits from victorious trainer Danny Shum Chap-shing.
The Australian jockey joked: 'I could feel Danny Shum's hands around my neck,' after he missed the kick on the sprinter and found himself trailing the Class One field.
But Purton held his nerve and charted a rails-run passage to ring up a double and help continue Shum's stellar start to the season.
'He just bounded in the air at the start and after he went 50m I thought 'there's no use digging him,' because he can over-race,' Purton said.
'So I thought I would switch him off and ride him where he was - but I could feel Danny Shum's hands around my neck after 200m.'
With a strong tempo, the missed start probably benefitted Shum's six-year-old, whose three previous wins had come over 1,000m and was tackling the trip for the second time.
