JOHN Size won an 11th trainers’ title when the Hong Kong season came to a close last week at Sha Tin.

An enthusiastic crowd of 51,000 people turned out to see Size post a double to repel John Moore’s challenge for championship honours.

That turnout was the highest since 2012 and took the season’s total attendance to 2.21 million, a 3.3% increase on the 2017/18 season.

He had a two-win lead over John Moore going into Hong Kong’s 2018/19 season finale. When the last horse crossed the line 11 races later, that advantage had extended to three and the Australian ended the day with 78 wins to Moore’s 75.

“It’s a big relief when you win,” Size said after he had matched Moore’s father George Moore’s record of 11 championships. “It’s difficult, it’s not that easy, so you just have to put your head down and keep going – do your best for every individual in the stable and you might come up with a championship.”

The handler (65) added: “You can’t put a price on morale, so when you’re winning it helps everybody, it helps the whole stable. My team has been with me for many years so they know what’s involved,” he said.

“I’m really pleased with how the season worked out. Beauty Generation was brilliant, we have Aethero and Thanks Forever coming through too, so I’m happy.”

Purton falls two short

ZAC Purton’s attempt to beat Joao Moreira’s Hong Kong single season record of 170 wins failed. Needing four wins on Sunday to match Moreira’s mark, he fell two short, a double being his return.

But there was no failure about his season as a whole: that was a resounding success. Purton’s 168 tally is the second-highest in Hong Kong history; it featured an unprecedented seven Group 1 wins at Sha Tin; his 1,000th Hong Kong victory; record prize money of HK$234.9 million; and a third champion jockey title.

“It’s amazing what I’ve been able to achieve this season – just getting to that number of winners, I don’t think anyone thought it was possible,” he said.

“It’s been an incredible season when you reflect back on the milestones, the records and the successes I’ve had – it’s quite astonishing and season it’s going to be very hard to equal and extremely hard to top.”