Salad and vegetables fuelling Zac Purton’s bid for second Caulfield Cup success

Superstar jockey Zac Purton is pushing his body to the limit to shed the weight he needs to ride Land Legend in the Caulfield Cup.

Sweat. Wrap. Sip. Repeat.

A small salad, or vegetables, for dinner.

Half a glass of water, maybe, to help get to sleep.

This is the Zac Purton weight cut, less than 24 hours before the Caulfield Cup.

The superstar Hong Kong-based Australian jockey, who won the 2014 Caulfield Cup, has to “dig a little deeper” to hit the 53kg required to ride Land Legend on Saturday.

Purton usually rides at 54.5kg in Hong Kong, light enough to get on the right horses and strong and switched on enough to execute.

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The 41-year-old had a quiet afternoon in Melbourne on Friday - in and out of a hot bath.

“It’s as hot as you can stand it,” the 44-time Group 1-winner said.

“If you’re boiling a lobster or a crab, it’s not that temperature but it feels like that, I get out of the bath and my body is red because the heat it’s in.

“You wrap yourself up in hot towels or bath gown and continue to sweat for five or 10 minutes, short break, a little bit of water, get back in and do it again.

“You’re in and out a few times and I find that helps me get the weight off easier than sitting in there for a solid hour and a half, two hours.”

Zac Purton celebrates after winning the Caulfield Cup with Japanese horse Admire Ratki in 2014.

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Purton has had two weeks to drop 1.5kg, not ideal but just enough time.

Land Legend’s win a fortnight ago in the Group 1 Metropolitan attracted a 1kg weight penalty and put the Chris Waller-trained stayer within Purton’s reach.

“I wouldn’t be able to do it every week, having to do it once a year or whenever that is, you go to the bottom of the barrel a little bit more,” Purton said.

Purton has shut the fridge and avoided socialising, lunches and dinners with owners and trainers is a popular pastime in Hong Kong, to make the cut.

“When you’re already at your floor, at your bottom, you got to dig a little bit deeper, it is harder,” Purton said.

“It’s a matter of training harder, eating cleaner and not allowing your body to bounce back up, you get to a point and hold it, get to another point and hold it.

“You’re stripping and stripping and stripping … there’s no room to breathe, you can’t let your body relax.

“It’s the life of a jockey, really.”

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Purton has the routine down pat.

“You can’t completely starve and kill yourself, you got to find a balance,” Purton said.

“I’m hungry, but I’m OK, I’m always hungry, hungry for food and hungry for winners.”

Land Legend is $7.50 with Ladbrokes behind Buckaroo ($4) and Eliyass ($6.50).

Purton is also booked to ride Land Legend in the Melbourne Cup.

Land Legend has a tendency to step slow from the gates, so barrier one “is a concern”.

“Especially if all those horses from the middle of the pack go forward and he’s been slow out and all of sudden ends up back last on the fence,” Purton said.

“It’s not going to be a great spot to be, hopefully he handles the occasion well, gets out of the gates well, gets himself into a nice rhythm midfield.

“If he’s further forward great, if he’s further back, so be it, and we’ll work it out.”

Originally published as Salad and vegetables fuelling Zac Purton’s bid for second Caulfield Cup success