Driving with Zac in the Zacmobile to my Garden of Hope and Inspiration…
- Hans Ebert
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
I wouldn’t say that I am “besties” with Zac Purton, but we’ve certainly known each other for however long he’s been in Hong Kong.
He’s someone I got to know pretty well when having him become an important part of the regular cast being put together for the Happy Wednesday brand I had created for the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Wife Nicole was part of this early cast when one of four co-hosts in what really was a game changer.
If still managing the kinda depleted brand today, it would already be on Netflix, a name mentioned by many in horse racing with no understanding of what the streaming service considers before financing original content- it’s appeal and pinpointing who and how large its audience might be.
While on my own career path, it’s been interesting watching Zac achieve everything and more that he could never have dreamed of achieving in horse racing, and with this unique and one-time international city being the catalyst.
One thing Hong Kong has done very well is make many dream- and dream big. And now that Zac has dreamt big and made big things happen for himself, what’s next?
Few ask themselves this question enough- and it can never be asked enough.
What’s interesting for me is how Zac and, I guess, the HKJC, plan to take everything he has accomplished in horse racing down that yellow brick road to newer grounds and greener pastures, where there are many who might not follow horse racing, BUT would still be interested in his life’s journey to date.
This could really mean something important for the present and future of horse racing by tapping into a completely new audience and who might make the sport and pastime relook at its business model and pivot from being whatever it is supposed to be today.
For this to happen, I think Zac’s World needs to be introduced to everything and everyone else out there by someone well-known internationally and from a totally different industry.
Like who? Off the top of my head, I am not joking when I say, ideally, this must be someone like Pharrell Williams or Sir Lewis Hamilton or Eminem. I know the question being asked: Why would they want to “endorse” Zac Purton?
The answer might be what keeps horse racing in its own little box.
I would think that by now, there’s been a podcast where Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong’s golden girl of swimming, and Zac Purton- have had a conversation about stress, depression, ambitions, problems and opportunities. Something REAL and POSITIVE and HELPFUL and INSPIRING, especially to young people.
There could somehow be someplace where horsepower meets horsepower and Zac Purton and Lewis Hamilton meet and talk, something INTERACTIVE that can definitely take horse racing into a completely different and much bigger arena and attract a much larger audience.
Frankly, I could come up with a conga line of other names- Bad Bunny, Russell Crowe, Jon Rahm, Gordon Ramsay, the Kardashians- but who at the HKJC has the roller deck to make any of these things actually happen?
Of course, with AI, anything is possible, but for this to work, there’s the need to build a strong idea where AI is part of the concept and storyline featuring Zac. This absolutely interests me, especially if AI artist Kelly Boesch is involved in the creative product.
Those lockdown years are over. We can now actually step outside the box without fear…but many don’t, because they’re holding themselves back or waiting for others to give them directions. But how do they know what they receive is correct?
Zac and Nicole came to Hong Kong from Lismore when in his early twenties. I ended up in Hong Kong when nine years old with my parents who were escaping a civil war in Ceylon and took shelter from the storm in a city of amazing contrasts.
Zac had to bide his time being an unknown, but a naturally gifted young rider living in the long shadow of then champion Hong Kong Jockey Douglas Whyte.
I went from being called a “wog” in primary school to playing some cricket and forming my first band in secondary school to eventually finding myself in advertising. This was where I played the cards I was dealt and helped launch McDonald’s in Hong Kong and satellite television station STARTV.
I ran the regional offices of Universal and EMI Music with Norman Cheng, created the Happy Wednesday brand, worked on writing music and writing songs and Remixing tracks by David Bowie, Robbie Williams, Gorillaz etc and became the online Racingbitch for a few years to soothe the inquisitive beast in me about an industry that I didn’t understand.
Zac caught a lucky break when trainer John Size, who had never used his services before, offered him the ride on Luger in the 2015 Hong Kong Derby.
Winning this race created The Zacmobile and this Zacmobile shifted gears, and usurped Douglas Whyte as the champion Hong Kong Jockey for what, up to then, had been an incredible run of thirteen consecutive years.
I was very close to Douglas during this time and remember when this happened like it was yesterday.
Particularly interesting was the ‘look’ on Douglas’s face watching Zac being interviewed by CNN just a few feet away from him. This was before a race meeting at Happy Valley racecourse and Zac was being asked about how he felt about winning the Hong Kong Jockey Championship for the first time. Zac was revelling in the moment, Douglas was not.
It’s moments like these where I am constantly reminded of just how much of a giving city Hong Kong has been in offering many opportunities that they would probably never have found anywhere else- celebrity chefs, hoteliers, journalists, teachers, celebrity hairdressers, and almost anyone with something worthwhile to offer the consumer. This is what made Hong Kong “Asia’s World City”.
As for what’s next for Zac Purton, most believe that it’s going to be the transition from jockey to horse trainer. That’s too predictable and easy, and I don’t think Zac wants anything “easy”.
Success like what Zac is enjoying with his wife Nicole and their family being part of the ride is something highly addictive, and can mean falling into the Venus flytrap of the often formulaic world of horse racing.
It’s not exactly an industry with any obvious Out clause that has opportunity knocks written on the door.
Horse racing doesn’t, for example, lead to any of its players being someone like Pharrell Williams evolving into being the global Creative Director for Louis Vuitton, making a movie about his life using Lego bricks and continuing to make music for any artist he wants.
For myself who’s now in the middle of writing about my life in Hong Kong and taking the next step in my Garden of Hope and Happiness project, what I am seeing is how no one’s dreams can be erased by being a big fish in a small pond or a mackerel floating in the ocean.
Everything is up to being the individual in one’s self, and, just as technology is never the idea, creating and creativity and ambition is about Self.
To get to the point of getting into understanding Self, there’s the need to break free from all those shackles one inherits that often binds and keeps one from moving on.
This is where there’s the need to break with traditional thinking and create new doors of opportunity.
For Zac Purton, I would think that now is the time to look outside of the square- but this is his call and that timing is everything.
Making and breaking records might be good for the ego and something to achieve and relevant to the horse racing world, but this might not be leading anywhere that presents the jockey with a new and career defining jumping off point.
The Everest and Ka Ying Rising aside, who knows what else is on the horizon?
The more I travel, what I see in today’s Hong Kong are a lack of good sounding boards who are not geographically challenged and the type of teamwork that can come together to create what’s missing in the new world order.
While looking to finding Self, too many are looking only at Me, which is like having a conversation with the bigly Tangerine Man in the White House.
Zac Purton is a brand name in horse racing. He and wife Nicole have worked hard on this by showing their fix star lifestyle through posts on social media.
It’s something that “the world’s best jockey”- James McDonald- seems to stay away from as does Joao Moreira, and one really doubts if the world is ready to see Ryan Moore on TikTok no matter how surreal and Zoolanderish this idea might be.
Believe it or not, but I see Netflix more than interested to produce something built around my favourite jockey purely because he’s so NOT Netflix. Ryan Moore is so uncool that he’s very very cool!
Zac Purton, meanwhile, is still hungry. Some might not agree with everything he says and does, but if life presents you with the opportunity to do so, why not take the Zacmobile down that yellow brick road and see if you run into Dorothy and Toto and their three friends and meet the wizard of Oz?
Don’t take advantage of the doors of opportunities that have been opened, and all that’s been given might turn into fairy dust.
I really doubt that Zac Purton has travelled this far only to make a U-turn and return to Kansas with Toto or park the Zacmobile in the latest billion dollar HKJC underground parking facility.
Me, my focus is The Garden of Hope and Inspiration and always finding the time to write about Jessie Buckley and the dress sense and casually elegant style of Mary Huen, Standard Chartered CEO of Hong Kong and Mainland China and North Asia.
HANS EBERT IS GARDENING
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