Within a few hours of banging in a New Year’s Day treble, Zac Purton was in the departure lounge at Hong Kong International Airport ready to go on a family holiday.

This, insists Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, is not something the six-time champion rider should get used to.

Jockeys taking breaks during a Hong Kong racing season is not common, and the reality is that some cannot afford to head off on a holiday mid-campaign and risk losing hard-earned momentum and upcoming rides.

Purton can. He’s 17 clear in the premiership after reaching 50 winners for the 14th consecutive season on Monday, but he’s not the only jockey to take a little festive recess after Brenton Avdulla returned to Australia for a family wedding over Christmas.

Purton and McDonald leave HK on a high after collecting New Year’s Day trebles

While it’s refreshing to see the Jockey Club show some flexibility not so long after its riders were subject to the most testing of Covid-19 restrictions, Engelbrecht-Bresges was quick to confirm the recent approach is “not a policy shift”.

“It was due to circumstances that link back to Covid and last year when jockeys were under significant mental stress. Therefore, there was a little bit of give and take, but it’s not what we plan as a regular exercise,” he said.

“We were informed that with Avdulla it was a long-term commitment. We have very special events where you have to accept them … but it’s an exemption, it’s not a rule.

“We have to be clear. If you look from a product side, I’m not really happy with Thursday’s meeting – you miss Purton and we have now [Hugh] Bowman with a suspension. It’s not ideal.

“We allow jockeys to ride overseas at certain meetings but I personally think when it comes to holidays, the product we have on the track has to be attractive and the stars of this are the horses and the jockeys.”

The absence of Purton will probably have something of a negative impact on betting turnover, but surely the bigger-picture view is that any short-term loss is more than offset by fostering an environment where the best jockeys want to stay long-term.

While both Purton and Avdulla negotiated their “special events” well in advance while working through contracts with the Jockey Club, the city’s riders shouldn’t need to feel like they’re making a deal when asking for a few days off.

The Jockey Club was quick to get on the front foot and allow jockeys to compete overseas once Covid permitted – it had to be because its ability to attract and retain world-class riders relies on it.

With officials facing a constant battle to lure the best jockeys, giving riders the freedom to live their lives outside racing, and what that looks like to those considering a Hong Kong stint, could be even more important.

Where to now for Spangle?

He remains the fourth highest-rated galloper in the city but California Spangle looks a shadow of his former self after a string of disappointing results.

The 2022 Group One Hong Kong Mile winner was sent off the $3.3 favourite for Monday’s Group Three Chinese Club Challenge Cup (1,400m) despite carrying top weight but could only manage seventh behind Taj Dragon.

While there were excuses in his previous two failures – he was pestered while setting a hot pace in the Group Two Jockey Club Mile, while he didn’t assume his customary lead role in last month’s Group One Hong Kong Mile – there wasn’t much to forgive from Monday’s effort.

Leading on the rail under Hugh Bowman from gate one, California Spangle’s first 600m in the feature was the second slowest of the six 1,400m races on the card and half a second outside the speed set by Beat Hollow in the afternoon’s Class Five seven-furlong contest.

While California Spangle finished four and a half lengths off the winner, $35 chance Beat Hollow hung on for third, a length and a half adrift.

Bowman, who was fined HK$25,000 for not riding Tony Cruz’s galloper out to the end of the race, told stewards that “while his mount was able to lead, it did not travel as strongly as when he had ridden the horse previously”.

Cruz tells Purton ‘he made the wrong decision’ after Spangle gives Bowman four

He added that “when placed under pressure in the early part of the home straight, California Spangle lay in and near the 200m was crowded for room by Healthy Happy and had this not have occurred, he felt California Spangle would have finished closer to the placegetters”.

Before the start of this season, Purton – who was aboard California Spangle for that Hong Kong Mile win – told an Australian podcast the six-year-old is “known for giving races away – you breathe down his neck and he gives up”.

Right now, that’s hard to argue with.