“Zac basically eased down in the same race last year for the last 200m, and he let him run to the line today. He hasn’t been let run to the line many times, and of course he smashed his own record – and you don’t see that very often – by [almost] a second.
Hayes said Ka Ying Rising was 29lb (13kg) heavier (total weight 1172lb or 531kg) than he was when he set last season’s track-record time and was probably 9lb (4kg) above his best winning weight, “so he’s got bigger, stronger and better”.
Posting one of the most dynamic performances of his mercurial career, Ka Ying Rising improved his overall record to 22 wins and two seconds from 24 starts with prizemoney of HK$160,923,900.
Conceding most of his rivals 20lb (9kg), Ka Ying Rising forged straight to the lead and ran 23.27s for the first 400m, a searing 21.15s between the 800m and 400m before closing off the final 400m in 21.69s to defeat Copartner Prance (115lb or 52kg) by seven-and-three-quarter lengths. Magic Control (115lb) was third, a further length-and-a-half back.
Both Hayes and Purton predicted Ka Ying Rising was capable of improvement this season despite finishing last preparation with three record-breaking runs in succession – running 1m 19.36s in the Group 1 Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1400m), 1m 07.12s in the Group 2 Sprint Cup (1200m) and 1m07.10s in the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m).
The superstar first broke Sacred Kingdom’s longstanding Sha Tin 1200m mark of 1m 07.50s with a gallop of 1m 07.43s in the Group 2 BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint in 2024 before lowering it to 1m 07.20s in the 2025 Group 1 Centenary Sprint Cup.
Remarkably, Hayes believes the Shamexpress gelding is still open to further development after he was allowed to coast over the final 100m on Sunday while lowering the course record by 0.99s.
Purton agreed: “We’ve both said that he’s a bigger, stronger horse and that didn’t mean he came back fat. He came back physically more developed and stronger and he’s feeling great. He hasn’t raced since April, so any amount of racing is going to improve him.
“I’m not going to stand there and say he’s going to improve lengths off that – and I said before, he doesn’t need to – but I’m sure he’s going to pull up better for the run.
Hayes said he was interested to see what time Ka Ying Rising would run ”because the track was very fast during the barrier trials here last week” and it was firm out there again on Sunday and they ran “a good time” in the first race.
“I sort of let him really get into his rhythm and I asked him for an effort, so I just wanted to see where we were at and, obviously, we’re in a good place,” Hayes said.
“There could be people out there saying he beat nothing but a few of those horses have won 20 or 25 million Hong Kong dollars. They’re well-rated horses. They’re Group horses around the world, but they don’t look it when they race him. They get taken out of their comfort zone.”
Ka Ying Rising entered quarantine less than two hours after caning his opposition, and Hayes is confident the sprinter will be fitter this year when he contests The Everest than he was when triumphing in the world’s richest turf race in 2025.
“We had him far too fresh arriving in Sydney. I don’t like to change much when they win like that, so we’ll just continue with a bit more base work and that’s holding him in better stead for when he arrives [in Sydney], mentally. It’s more about mentally not arriving too fresh,” Hayes said.
“I have no fears because he thrives at Canterbury and he did well here [in quarantine].”
– HKJC