Zac Purton sides with Superich in Sunday’s (27 January) Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) at Sha Tin and the reigning champion jockey has high hopes and niggling reservations in equal measure ahead of the four-year-old generation’s first big test.

“Prior to his last start, I thought he had shown enough to be winning a Classic Mile,” the champion jockey said.

Frankie Lor’s charge opened this season with a Class 3 win over 1200m; he followed that with two good-looking placed efforts at 1400m before running second to the re-opposing Mr So And So at the same distance at the end of December.

“All his runs this season up to that point had been terrific performances, really solid efforts,” Purton said. “He gave the look, the feel and the impression that he was going to be able to measure up in a race like this.”

But with Superich’s berth booked in the first leg of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, Purton is ruminating over what he feels was a “disappointing” last run.

“He was below par, he didn’t really attack the line how I thought he should have,” he explained.

Lor, though, has applied a piece of equipment that both trainer and rider hope will help the son of Red Giant find his peak this weekend.

“We put the cheek-pieces on him Monday morning,” Purton said.

The chestnut worked 800m in 55.1s (29.4, 25.7) but much more important than that time will be how much positive effect the cheek pieces might have had.

“He’s a strong worker in the morning so it’s hard to get a good guide off that,” the rider said. “But I just found in every one of his races this season I’ve been at him the whole way: not one race has he travelled in and helped me.

“He hasn’t been in a nice position: I’ve found in every race that I’ve been scrubbing just to hold a position or get a position. It’s just too difficult to do that and then hope to find something at the end.”

Purton still believes the New Zealand-bred has the ability to be a leading player but only if he raises his game from that latest run.

“Hopefully the cheek-pieces encourage him to travel better. If that’s the case, hopefully at a mile, with a bit more rhythm, we can see him go and do it. He does need to improve on his last effort.”

Purton believes two contenders are ahead of the rest going into what nonetheless appears to be an open contest. One of those is the Lor-trained Dark Dream, a horse the jockey rode when third on debut prior to Silvestre de Sousa doing the steering for an impressive 2000m score.

“Dark Dream was the most impressive so far, he’s got the highest rating and ratings quite often are what you should go by in the four-year-old series,” he said. “I know we have some unexposed horses in there but his form’s solid, although on the other hand he is coming back in distance and it was on a bit of a soft track last time.

“I did like the way Tony Cruz’s horse, Ka Ying Star, won last time too – I know he had a soft lead in front but he looked pretty strong on the line and he did it comfortably. Those two look like they stand out a bit from the rest.”

So And So’s alright

Joao Moreira climbed aboard Mr So And So for the first time in that Class 2 win over Superich and the three-time Hong Kong champion jockey believes his mount’s courage could see him emerge as a challenger in the final surge for Classic Mile glory. 

“I’m confident that if he’s in top form he’ll be right there fighting at the finish,” he said.

“Last time he had to do it tough because he had to shoulder horses to get through and he was brave enough to look at that narrow gap and do that. The other horse attacked at the end but I think if we’d run another furlong he wouldn’t have got past, just because Mr So And So has got the heart, the fighting spirit.

“I could put him in the top four horses because of his heart,” he continued, “and, of course, he can run because he’s been in strong races and he’s been winning.”

Mr So And So in fact heads into the feature on a hat-trick after two wins on the bounce. Those successes have lifted the So You Think gelding to a rating of 91, with the only horse rated higher than 92 being Dark Dream on 104.

“There are horses that are eye-catchers, like Ka Ying Star, and there are those with higher ratings than him, like Frankie’s Horse, Dark Dream, but that one is probably going to appreciate a longer distance,” Moreira observed.

“I think this horse can find more going in – I’m not sure that he’ll find a lot more, but he still has some upside.”