Douglas Whyte heaped praise on his former fierce rival Zac Purton after the nine-time champion jockey helped get his season up and running with a Happy Valley double on Wednesday night.

Live Wire’s success in the Class Four Community Chest Cup (1,200m) was an easy watch for Whyte, but it was the complete opposite when it came to Young Arrow in the second section of the Class Four Lido Handicap (1,200m).

Forced to settle back early, Purton again had to steady his mount heading out of the back straight when Golden Friendship fell into his lap.

Swinging wide into the straight, Young Arrow began to gobble up the ground down the middle of the track and surged past Lucky McQueen and Winning Money to score by a cosy length.

It was a win that was long in the making, with Whyte admitting he had “been a victim of circumstance” on multiple occasions, and he is now hoping Young Arrow can kick on after notching his first win since May last year.

“It looked ugly until they climbed the rock and things sorted themselves out. He’s been a victim of circumstances for a long time and he just needed things to fall into place. That’s the benefit of having Zac on – when things go wrong like that, he can make things happen at the back end of the race,” Whyte said.

“I’m happy to see him get over the line and I’ve always said I truly believe that once this horse wins, he’ll get some confidence and he’s possible to be very effective next time again.

“If he draws a gate and can just be behind one or two of them to get a smooth run, he’s another winner waiting to happen.”

Live Wire’s win in the prior race was much easier for Whyte, with Purton guiding him from pillar to post after bursting out from his kind draw of two.

Always travelling in hand on the sharp end, Purton kicked on coming off the bend and was quickly away and gone, winning by one and a half lengths.

Remarkably, that is now four doubles from four meetings for Purton and Whyte was quick to praise his old adversary.

“I think he’s enjoyed the break. He’s certainly strengthened up physically,” Whyte said. “Mentally he’s not quite there yet but as Zac said, he had a good time of it tonight out in front and when Zac asked him the question, he really quickened up well. He’s putting things together, but he’s still very immature.

“Physically he’s improved and you can now train him, whereas before he was very fragile. Mentally, I hope the penny drops and when it does, he’ll certainly improve.

“The gate helped him. He got a tactical, soft time of it out in front, which was clearly beneficial to him, but he makes his own advantages by beginning the way he does and he stayed on strongly and picked up when Zac asked him. So, that’s all you can ask of him at the moment.”

Elsewhere, Pierre Ng Pang-chi’s faith in Le Zonda, who he described as having Group-race aspirations, was rewarded when he completed a brilliant hat-trick in the Class Two Shek O Handicap (1,650m).

Settled just behind midfield, Vincent Ho Chak-yiu had to endure a wide trip on the promising four-year-old, who was widest of all turning into the straight.

Le Zonda made giant strides when let down, however, and defied the drop in trip to run down Sagacious Life by a head, with Ng now mulling a tilt at the Group Three Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse (1,800m) at Sha Tin in November.

“It was a bit fast and sharp for him today, but Vincent managed to get him rolling early on. He does have a good turn of foot, as we know, and he showed that again today so it was a good win,” Ng said.

“We look forward to the next race which is on October 14. After that, we’ll see what happens. [The Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse] is definitely in our minds, but hopefully he continues to perform well and we can think of that more later on.”

Alexis Badel joined Whyte and Purton in riding a double, but he, trainer Jamie Richards and Romantic Fantasy had to survive a stewards’ inquiry to land the Big Wave Bay Handicap (1,800m) and get their campaigns off the ground.

“No inquiry is ever good. There was a little bit of contact from those horses but no jockeys stopped riding, so we were satisfied with the result and I’m glad to get on the board,” said Richards.

Badel completed his double when the Me Tsui Yu-sak-trained Pope Cody lashed home to win the Class Three Chung Hom Kok Handicap (1,650m).

There was also a race-to-race double for jockey Derek Leung Ka-chun, who collected the first two races on the card aboard Spicy Spangle in the Class Five Hoi Mei Handicap (1,000m) and Bright Day in the first section of the Lido Handicap.