It was a very different time in the world when brought in by The Big Poohbah himself to take a look and see if the Beer Garden at Happy Valley racecourse could be more than what it was- kinda Mad Max empty and dull. This was about ten years ago after ten years with EMI Music. Seems like an eternity. Maybe it was... What there was at Happy Valley was something called “Sassy Wednesday” with advertising that looked like something for an escort club or upmarket sauna in Macau tha

Sixteen years ago, a 24 year old Australian jockey jockey named Zac Purton arrived in Hong Kong with wife Nicole. It was one giant leap into the whatever was there for the relatively unknown rider. After all, at the time, Hong Kong was known as a city that had made many rich very quickly and which also seduced many before eventually spitting them out towards the direction of the old Kai Tak airport. This would usually happen when the Independent Commission Against Corruption

It’s always been about timing. And karma. So when Australian Zac Purton returned to his home in Sydney late last week after a rollercoaster week in Hong Kong where the champion rider was hit with two separate fines totalling HK$200,000- chump change to him- for apparently breaking two of The Rules Of Racing, one just knew something of a game changing nature was going to happen. Zac was probably singing, “What’s it all about, Alfie?” regarding his time in Hong Kong while plann