Fresh off reaching 1,700 Hong Kong winners, six-time champion jockey Zac Purton looks well placed to immediately taste more success when he partners hat-trick seeker Raging Blizzard at Sha Tin on Sunday.

A four-time winner from eight starts, Raging Blizzard has rapidly risen through the ranks this term and will face his toughest test yet when he steps into Class Two company in the Jinbao Street Handicap (1,200m).

The John Size-trained four-year-old enters the race on the back of two commanding victories at Happy Valley and Purton hopes he can settle in a favourable position from barrier six.

“He’s continued to get better as the season has progressed and he likes it when he can get a bit of cover off the speed with something to chase,” Purton said. “It looks like he should get it in this race.”

After he gave a good account of himself to finish second on his Hong Kong debut in July last year, Raging Blizzard defied a wide berth over the Sha Tin 1,200m first up this season to shed his maiden tag under Purton.

The son of Per Incanto added to his win tally at Sha Tin two starts later, prevailing under Karis Teetan in a ding-dong battle with Purton’s mount Gorgeous Win.

Size decided to send Raging Blizzard to Happy Valley for his next start, but the four-year-old was narrowly touched off on his city circuit debut before failing to fire from gate 12 at the beginning of February.

A change in tactics and the addition of cheekpieces immediately paid dividends at the end of February, with Raging Blizzard stretching to a two-and-a-half-length victory before notching another Class Three win at Happy Valley last month.

“I’ll just ride him where he’s comfortable,” Purton said. “When he was racing on the speed he did seem to switch off and wander around a touch, so the addition of cheekpieces and riding him a bit more conservatively seems to have clicked with him.”

Among Raging Blizzard’s seven rivals is the Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained Gorgeous Win, who also gets his first taste of Class Two level.

Purton has been in the saddle for all three of Gorgeous Win’s victories and the 41-year-old strongly believes the son of Press Statement is markedly better than he showed when he failed to fire last time out.

“I was really surprised with the disappointing effort Gorgeous Win put in last time because he’s much better than that,” Purton said.

Blizzard is all the rage on Happy Valley debut: ‘He can probably win again’

“He is only a three-year-old, he had to carry top weight and he did strike a wet track, so he had some things there to forgive him.”

While Gorgeous Win was narrowly denied when he opposed Raging Blizzard on Boxing Day, the lightly raced sprinter will jump from gate three with an eight-pound swing in his favour.

Elsewhere in the race, Atullibigeal has been a consistent performer over 1,400m and a mile this term, but Hugh Bowman’s mount steps back to 1,200m for the first time since he saluted over the distance on New Year’s Day last year.