John Moore’s five-decade career in Hong Kong will come to an end in 10 days’ time but the handler hammered home a hat-trick of wins at Sha Tin on Sunday to show that he’s not winding down just yet.
Sunny Boy set the ball rolling with an all-the-way win under Zac Purton; So We Joy easily broke his maiden for Joao Moreira; and Purton delivered Awe with a sweetly-timed run to complete a race-to-race-to-race three-timer for Hong Kong’s most successful trainer of all time.
“I’m really pleased with that – three winners,” Moore said after taking his tally to 56 for the term. “We had a target of 50 to 55 winners and we’ve surpassed that so it’s been a really good season after what we did with 75 winners last season.”
Moore is a seven-time champion trainer in Hong Kong but sits eight wins behind the current premiership leader Ricky Yiu, who pulled a win out of the fire to end the day one ahead of Francis Lui.
With three meetings to go, Moore played down his own chances of a late challenge, seeing the title as a three-way fight between that pair and Tony Cruz.
“It’s great for racing that it’s not only monopolised by two trainers,” Moore said. “With Ricky Yiu and Francis Lui, and Tony (Cruz) right up there, it’s just good for Hong Kong racing that a Chinese trainer, like Dennis Yip did years ago, can come out and win a premiership. It’s very important for racing here
Moore, 70, will depart for Sydney and a training partnership with his brother Gary Moore at Rosehill, having reached the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s compulsory retirement age.
“It’s got to be emotional because I’ve spent so much of my life in Hong Kong, but my wife is Chinese, our home is here, and while we’ll be in Australia for a lot of the time, I’ll be back here very often. I think I’ll keep my Diamond Membership with Cathay!” he said.
Zac Purton’s earlier triumph in the Class 4 Port Shelter Handicap on the Jimmy Ting-trained Perfect Pair, meant he came out of the 11-race card with a six-win advantage over Joao Moreira, with the tallies running 141 to 135.
“I need more!” Purton said.
But perhaps not.
Moreira’s already crumbling title hopes disintegrated to dust when the stewards handed out a suspension that benches him for the season finale on Wednesday, 15 July; the three-time champ was already suspended for this Wednesday night’s meeting, leaving him with only one race meeting to try and pull back six wins on Purton, who will ride all of the remaining three fixtures to win his fourth title.
Next racemeeting is at Happy Valley on Wednesday 8 July.
