Mertens has ridden 59 winners this season, his hat-trick overhauling multiple champion Craig Williams (57 winners).

He will, however, find his title bid compromised following his winning ride on Onpicalo, for Mick Price, and faced two careless riding charges arising from separate incidents in the event.

Stewards suspended him for 10 meetings, to be served concurrently, for the two offences.

Mertens is already due to begin a short suspension on Sunday for an infringement last Wednesday at Sandown, which means he will not resume race riding until Sunday, May 28.

The only upside for him is that he will, because of a quirk in the calendar, miss only two city meetings - at Flemington on Saturday and Sandown a week later as there are no metropolitan midweek fixtures scheduled before he returns.

In addition, his main title rival, Williams, is likely to be in demand interstate at the big money carnivals in Adelaide or Brisbane while Mertens is on the outer.

"Obviously you can't fight against it and the decision has been made," Mertens said. "It's not ideal, that's for sure. Hopefully we can resume back riding winners again,

"I thought I was a bit stiff to get time on the first offence.......but the second one I thought was pretty fair to be getting time over, it was just a silly mistake by me.

"When you are winning a race in a tight finish you are not really thinking about steering. Just a silly mistake I suppose."

Mertens was not the only hat-trick scorer when most of the big names were interstate at Morphettville or Doomben.

The David Hayes/Tom Dabernig/Ben Hayes combination also landed a treble, scoring with two-year-old Tycoon Dancer in the opener (partnered by Luke Nolen), Shaf in the second event (one of Mertens' trio) and the Corey Parish-ridden outsider All Out Of Love in the Noel Rundle Handicap, a race for up-and-coming three-year-old stayers in which the Darren Weir-trained hotpot Mongolian Wolf was never sighted.

And not to be outdone, Caulfield trainer Mick Price - himself away in Adelaide - also picked up three winners on the day: Pedrena and Onpicalo, both partnered by Mertens, and the Dean Yendall-ridden Run Gypsy Run.

Mertens is committed to becoming the first apprentice since Nick Ryan in 2004-05 to win the jockeys' title, and only the fifth since World War ii to win the title while still indentured. Damien Oliver, Darren Gauci and Geoff Lane are the others in the past 72 years.

His suspension now makes the dilemma he had faced - whether to go to Adelaide to ride Basset for Price in South Australia's biggest race of the year, the Goodwood - academic.

Instead, the teenager, who has been riding in the metropolitan area for barely 18 months, has a fortnight to recharge his batteries and, as chief steward Terry Bailey told him, "get back to basics, when no one was writing up your name".

Mertens said that during his suspension he "will be relaxing, watching races, doing my normal training with my boss, Michael Kent, at Cranbourne, with David Hayes and Gai Waterhouse".

"If I get a bit ahead of myself my boss throws me in a box in the hayshed and makes me do a few hay bags. He keeps me grounded."

The 19-year-old son of the now retired rider Peter Mertens,is also a keen surfer so will use his time to practice his technique in the water.

"I love surfing, it's what I will be doing most of my time next week if the weather is any good. I do love it outside racing."