Zac Purton will have just one ride to get a feel for Hong Kong’s new whip rules before partnering Ka Ying Rising at Sunday’s season-opening meeting and the star jockey admits he’s not a fan of the change.

While in the past there has been no limit on how often jockeys in Hong Kong can use the whip, officials confirmed on Thursday that riders will not be permitted to strike their mounts in consecutive strides before the 100m mark.

“I don’t like it. I don’t agree with it,” said eight-time champion jockey Purton. “I think everywhere around the world that they’ve brought a whip rule in, turnover has gone down and participation has gone down.”

While the Jockey Club believes the change will address perception issues around equine welfare and act as a step towards harmonisation with other racing jurisdictions, Purton can’t see any merit in it.

“I think it’s the wrong thing to do. We’re the best racing jurisdiction in the world and we should have just continued to play our game. If you’ve got the best house on the street, you don’t change it,” he said.

Jockeys can still use the whip at their discretion inside the final 100m – something Purton hopes he won’t have to give too much thought to aboard the world’s best sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, in the Class One HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (1,200m).

Chasing a 13th consecutive victory before turning his attention to the mega-rich The Everest (1,200m) in Sydney next month, the David Hayes-trained Ka Ying Rising must lump top weight in a competitive running of the traditional opening-day feature.

“I think we’re all excited to see him step out again on race day. He’s got a big preparation ahead of him, hopefully, and we need to run in this race to get a race into him before he goes away,” said Purton.

“Obviously it’s not ideal the way the handicaps are set up – having to carry top weight and give 20lb away to most of the field. But he’s drawn reasonably well and he’s been showing a lot of speed in his trials.”

As for Purton, he enters his 19th Hong Kong season feeling fresh after an off-season in Europe and he’s itching to get stuck into a campaign that could see him reach 2,000 winners in the city.

“It’s always exciting at the start of the season,” said the 42-year-old, who sits on 1,878 victories after sailing past Douglas Whyte’s record mark of 1,813 last term.

“Everyone starts off on zero, so everyone gets their opportunity. I’ve got to work as hard as everyone else to try and find the right horses, get the support, get the opportunities and see how we go.

“Obviously, it always helps when you’ve got a horse like Ka Ying Rising to look forward to and then I’ve just got to try and find a couple of diamonds within the rough among all the others.”

Purton has nine rides as he looks to hit the ground running on Sunday, also jumping aboard the Dennis Yip Chor-hong-trained Fast Network in the Class Two Tai Mo Shan Handicap (1,400m).