Champion jockey Zac Purton returned to his homeland on Saturday and plundered one of its most prestigious races, stealing the Caulfield Cup on Japanese galloper Admire Rakti.
Australian expat Purton, who has been based in Hong Kong since 2007, brought the Tomeyuki Umeda-trained Admire Rakti down the centre of the track, grabbing New Zealand mare Rising Romance (James McDonald) in the final strides to win the A$3m (HK$20.4m) 2,400m handicap by a long neck.
Race favourite Lucia Valentina (Kerrin McEvoy) was a farther half-length away in third, with Purton's great rival Douglas Whyte seventh on the Chris Waller-trained Junoob.
It continues a big month for the jockey, who is also settling into his new role as a father after wife Nicole gave birth to their first child, daughter Roxy.
Purton has scaled the heights of his profession around the world in the past two years, winning the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot on Danny Shum Chap-shing's Little Bridge, taking out the 2012 World Super Jockeys Championship in Japan and unseating 13-time champion Whyte as Hong Kong's top jockey.
However, opportunities for big-race success in his native Australia had been few and far between until this year, when the jockey picked up the ride on Doncaster Mile winner Sacred Falls - a horse he returns to Melbourne to ride in the Cox Plate next week.
"It all comes down to opportunities," he said. "For one reason or another, it's been hard to get them in Australia. It's mainly been through my travels throughout the rest of the world that I've been able to get them."
"I was only in Sydney for two years before I went to Hong Kong, so I didn't get a chance to build up my connections there and didn't get the opportunities before I left. And it's been a little bit disappointing to not get the chances with what I've been doing.
"But I picked up the ride on Sacred Falls through my connections in Asia, and the same has happened with Admire Rakti."
And the best may yet to come, with Admire Rakti now the nominal favourite for Australia's biggest race, the A$6m (HK$40.8m) Melbourne Cup on November 4.
