After Matthew Poon grabbed the spotlight with a four-timer at Sha Tin on Sunday, Zac Purton and Joao Moreira are looking to resume normal service at Happy Valley on Wednesday.

Purton’s weekend work saw him draw a blank for the first time since 9 May, while Moreira squeaked one win to end an untimely cold snap of 25 races without success. That puts the premiership score at 128 to 124 in the Australian’s favour with 10 meetings left this term.

The competition is well and truly on and both men know a haul like Poon’s at this late stage could swing the race in their favour. Last season, Moreira took 13 wins from the final 10 meetings, while Purton sealed the title with 24 wins including an epic six-timer – Moreira managed a pair of trebles in that spell.

“It would make it easier,” Purton said. “But there are a lot of tired horses out there, now that we’re at the tail-end of the season and results can be a little mixed; I hope I’m on the right side of it.”

Moreira too takes the view that wins can be difficult to accrue in the final weeks of a Hong Kong campaign.  

“It’s going to be even harder now to see someone riding four or five winners in a day,” Moreira acknowledged.

“At this time of the year it’s the wet season so the surface can become a lottery. You might have decent rides but at least half of them won’t handle the surface so it becomes difficult – you get high dividend horses winning, as we’ve seen lately.”

The two leading jockeys usually book many of their rides well in advance of any race meeting, long before the Hong Kong Observatory can issue a meaningful weather forecast.

“When you have a wet track like last weekend you’re always going to get surprises. We can only hope we get good tracks between now and the end of the season,” Purton said.