A determined Zac Purton still won't declare the jockeys' championship over despite being 15 wins clear with 10 meetings remaining but did allow himself to bask in the satisfaction of becoming just the second rider in history to ride 100 winners in a Hong Kong racing season.
Purton salvaged what looked like being a disastrous day with wins in the final two races to make it a three-wins-all stalemate with Joao Moreira at Sha Tin on Sunday.
After the top two riders fought out a thrilling duel in the last - Purton's Packing Llaregyb edging out Moreira's Khaya in a head-bobbing finish - Purton took time to reflect on a season that sees him join 13-time jockey Douglas Whyte as the only rider to complete a century of wins in a term.
"It means a lot to me, and it is obviously incredibly difficult to do - only one other jockey has done it previously - and that just illustrates how hard a milestone it is to achieve," Purton said.
Whyte has reached triple figures six times, including notching a record 114 wins in the 2005-06 season - a mark still within striking distance if Purton can finish the season in a similar fashion to his early season blitz.
"I came firing out of the blocks and have been ticking over ever since and the last couple of weeks have been good as well. Hopefully I can keep that momentum going right through now," Purton said, before adding, in regards to his championship battle with Moreira: "It's still a fight and there are still 10 meetings to go."
Of those meetings, Purton rides at no more than eight because of a two-day suspension and Moreira is pencilled in for nine, barring further suspensions, as he misses Sunday's meeting at Sha Tin to ride Glorious Days in the Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo.
Early on, Sunday's card had a similar look to Wednesday's Happy Valley fixture, where Moreira clawed two wins back to make the margin 15, by riding three wins to his rivals one.
Purton was looking down the barrel of the same scoreline coming into the final two races, and to that point had endured a frustrating day of near misses and horse withdrawals.
"Joao ran me down in the first, and then he won on Sugar, which I had been offered to ride. I also had two outsiders scratched behind the gates," Purton said. "I just have to concentrate on what I am doing though. There's a lot of racing left - Joao is getting a little bit of momentum now and I've got the suspension coming up. Let's see what happens."
Moreira was jokingly asking Purton for half the stake money after the close finish to the last, after Khaya bore into Purton's mount late. "I pushed him over the line," Moreira laughed.
Maybe the luck had begun to swing Purton's way by then, as a race earlier the stars aligned when Benno Yung Tin-pang's Ka Ying Kid broke through for his first local win in 18 starts.
"He got the draw, the right tempo and a beautiful ride from Zac," Yung said. "He had everything his way today."
Purton's first win came courtesy of a rare opportunity for Tony Cruz, the trainer's troublesome three-year-old Terrific Master appreciating his first crack at 1,800m.
While Cruz explained that physical setbacks had halted Terrific Master's progression - corns meaning he has spent considerable time on the sidelines - a litany of behavioural issues have also played their part.
"He does a lot wrong," Purton said. "He doesn't begin well, he doesn't like the fence, he doesn't like other horses, he wants to pull and then when you ask him for effort he doesn't know what to do. So in that respect he has got a lot of room for improvement, but he can get over a bit of ground and he will win races here."
