Graham Cunningham Hong Kong Diary ahead of Hong Kong International Races 2024

Zac back and J-Mac

Most speculation swirling around Sha Tin this week surrounds four G1 LONGINES HKIR contests, with Ka Ying Rising, Romantic Warrior and Voyage Bubble set to lead the Hong Kong defence against a clutch of highly dangerous international raiders.

But intense human rivalries play an equally strong role in shaping the HK racing landscape and the two men who will ride three leading HK hopes this Sunday face some fascinating career choices in 2025.

Now 41 with seven HK championships and a record eleven HKIR victories behind him, Purton is closing in relentlessly on a legendary summit he thought was out of reach until relatively recently.

Douglas Whyte’s record of 1,813 winners in HK will be broken early in the new year barring accidents - and that’s when things could start to get very interesting.

Hothouse Flowers

Purton took years to win a hard-edged battle for supremacy with the Durban Demon and the same tenacity helped him get the better of a long-running duel with Joao Moreira that took a significant physical and mental toll on both riders.

But elite sport is an unforgiving business.

Well clear of Hugh Bowman atop this season’s table with a strike rate nudging one in four, Purton remains at the peak of his powers thanks to a blend of skill, precision and drive that embodies the key qualities of the sporting brand he represents perfectly.

There isn’t a rider alive better equipped to handle the HK hothouse but the charismatic younger rival who will be crowned as LONGINES World’s Best Jockey at a glitzy Gala Dinner here on Friday night looms as the next major challenger.

Return of the J-Mac

James McDonald has enjoyed a stellar year by any standards, mopping up a host of the world’s top races aboard ROMANTIC WARRIOR and star Aussie mare Via Sistina, and the Kiwi ace fired in a Happy Valley treble in midweek to continue a flying start to his latest short-term HK stint.

Purton is plainly a J-Mac fan and told an Aussie radio station as long ago as 2022 that: “You’re probably not going to believe me but I’ve been on the phone to him the last couple of years trying to get him to come to Hong Kong.”

‘Be careful what you wish for’ is a phrase that comes to mind but HKJC boss Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges added fuel to the anticipation fire this year by saying McDonald’s full time move to HK “is just a matter of time” and it doesn’t take a genius to draw certain conclusions.

Let’s go round again?

First, star riders very rarely hang up their boots if there is a superstar on the scene and Zac knows that Sunday’s Sprint favourite KA YING RISING could be something very special indeed.

Second, Purton seems to be sensing you are a long time retired and, with his body holding up and his wife and kids in harmony, he echoes what many others have felt by saying “Hong Kong is a hard place to walk away from.”

And third, McDonald’s HK links are growing stronger by the year.

Never one to mince words, Purton sums up the equation by saying “when he looks at his bank account and he looks at my bank account, he’s stupid for staying in Australia.”

I don’t have access to Zac’s bank account, but I do know that his 1,785 winners and over 3,000 placings at Sha Tin and the Valley have earned him a winning percentage on around £230m – no, that isn’t a misprint - in career prize money.

When you put it like that the “matter of time” view about James starts to make perfect sense.

McDonald fielded a raft of questions about Romantic Warrior and Voyage Bubble’s prospects at a Thursday Press conference and added a little mischief as he left, bending down to the microphone with a broad grin to say: “Zac might not start favourite in the jockey’s challenge for once."

It wasn’t the sort of crack that suggests we are in for a return to the days of daggers drawn duels with Douglas or punishing jousts with Joao.

But it was enough to keep the speculation pot boiling.

I could be missing the mark but Purton seems in no mood to desert the HK stage and McDonald’s move may not be far away.

In short, 2025 might just be the year of ‘Zac back and J-Mac.’ And, as two of the world’s finest prepare for another Sha Tin showdown, that really would be something to wax lyrical about.

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