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KA YING RISING, ZAC PURTON \/ G1 The Everest \/\/ Randwick Racecourse \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by David Gray (AFP)<\/p>\nKa Ying Rising just can\u2019t stay out of the headlines even when he\u2019s taking things easy in rural Guangdong. As Royal Ascot\u2019s Group 1 action wound up with Satono Reve and Joliestar fighting a four-way finish to the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, his name was being touted for next year\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
Hong Kong\u2019s phenomenal champion has already put the Japanese horse and the Australian mare in their place a time or two, but his absence from Ascot last weekend was a topic for discussion given Ascot officials\u2019 yearning to have him there.<\/p>\n
The British press leapt on comments by Ascot\u2019s director of racing and public affairs Nick Smith saying Ka Ying Rising\u2019s trainer David Hayes had made \u201cpositive noises\u201d about next year\u2019s Royal Meeting for the world\u2019s top-rated galloper.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Paddock-side pundits from Australia\u2019s Channel 7 even had him all but locked in for next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t said no,\u201d Hayes told Idol Horse on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s a possibility but it\u2019s probably unlikely.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Everest, Sydney racing\u2019s AU$20 million behemoth, the world\u2019s richest sprint, is both the lure and the roadblock that could keep Ka Ying Rising away from Royal Ascot next year just as it has this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Everest is an incredible race and it\u2019s financially very rewarding,\u201d Hayes continued. \u201cAnd the horse is from Australia and so am I, so I\u2019ll always give The Everest priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
That gives Ascot\u2019s overtures a bit of a \u2018Lloyd Christmas\u2019 vibe: the scene in the classic 1990s comedy film Dumb and Dumber where the Jim Carrey-played title character is given the odds on the likelihood of him hooking the eligible bachelorette Mary Swanson.<\/p>\n
\u201cLevel with me, what are my chances?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot good.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean not good like one out of a hundred?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say more like one out of a million.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you\u2019re telling me there\u2019s a chance!\u201d<\/p>\n
Flippancy aside, it seems there is a chance, but while it\u2019s perhaps shorter than a million to one, it\u2019s still a longshot. Royal Ascot 2027 is down the priority list for the Ka Ying Rising camp and if it does bob to the top, it will be after Hong Kong\u2019s champion has \u201cticked some boxes\u201d for his owner Leung Shek-kong and his Ka Ying Syndicate through the next 10 months.<\/p>\n
Leung, as Hayes and the gelding\u2019s jockey Zac Purton pointed out, is the one who will have the final say anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s going for a \u2018threepeat\u2019 of the two Hong Kong international races, the Hong Kong Sprint and the Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize, and a repeat of The Everest,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cIf he does all those again, the owner might be tempted to have a crack.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, as things stand, the thinking from Hayes is that Ka Ying Rising will most likely repeat what he is doing now as he prepares for a second run in October\u2019s Everest, and go towards a third run in The Everest in 2027. The Randwick race is worth AU$20 million (\u00a310.5 million) total, the Jubilee at Ascot is worth \u00a31 million (AU$1.9 million) with a winner\u2019s purse last Saturday of \u00a3567,100 (AU$1.07 million).<\/p>\n
The primary reasons are plain. The Everest\u2019s massive prize money is an obvious draw, and then there\u2019s a desire to avoid the increased rigours of travelling to England in June, back to Hong Kong then on to Sydney, Australia and back to Hong Kong within a four-month span.<\/p>\n
Smith has spoken about incentives and bonuses Ascot might offer to entice such a special case as Ka Ying Rising, and Hayes told Idol Horse some kind of bonus linked to the Hong Kong Sprint or Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize might increase the appeal of an Ascot assignment.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s more about the horse,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cIf there was no Everest it would be an absolute no-brainer to go to Ascot, but the problem (for Ascot) is The Everest. It means he actually doesn\u2019t get a break at any stage if he goes to Ascot. He\u2019d have to stay in training after his grand final in the Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize, and then he\u2019s got to go to England, then get back here to prepare for The Everest and probably need a lead-up race, so it\u2019s inconvenient.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis horse is averaging prize money earnings of $1.2 million Aussie per race, so about \u00a3600,000 and he\u2019d be running for less than that at Ascot. So, what we\u2019re doing is working at not putting him at risk. When you get a freak like him in your life, you\u2019ll do anything that doesn\u2019t put any risk on them, and every time you travel, it\u2019s a risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
KA YING RISING, ZAC PURTON \/ G1 The Everest \/\/ Randwick Racecourse \/\/\/ 2025 \/\/\/\/ Photo by David Gray (AFP)<\/p>\n
Right now, Ka Ying Rising is coming back into work off a few weeks of deserved downtime at the Hong Kong Jockey Club\u2019s Conghua training complex in China.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re copy and pasting last season and that\u2019s why I was adamant he wasn\u2019t going to Ascot this year,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cHe gets a month in the paddock at Conghua, then he\u2019s had a week of swimming and water walking because it\u2019s very hot, and he\u2019s just started doing cantering. He\u2019ll have his work increased the second week of July with a view to running the first day of the new season.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd going to Australia is not like going from England to America: we have quarantine in Australia and quarantine in Hong Kong, so he does probably six weeks in isolation when he goes to Australia, so it\u2019s a very big overseas trip and I just don\u2019t want to pull the string too far.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Ascot has always leaned on in the absence of big prize money is the experience: the event\u2019s long and storied history, the presence of the British royal family at their track, its status as Europe\u2019s most prestigious meeting and the kudos victory brings.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, the owner doesn\u2019t need any money, he\u2019s an extremely wealthy person and money is not his god, but he\u2019s an extremely successful businessman and he\u2019s got to weigh up what\u2019s more important to him,\u201d Purton told Idol Horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had a great experience going to Australia to win the Everest which is the world\u2019s richest sprint race, so would he want to go there a third time or would he find more value in going to Royal Ascot?<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I\u2019ve got later into my life and become more successful, I\u2019ve realised that experiences sometimes are worth more than the financial aspect,\u201d Purton continued. \u201cRoyal Ascot is an experience: you\u2019re in front of the royal family, you\u2019ve got all the best horses in Europe racing there, it\u2019s a fantastic racecourse, but you don\u2019t go there because of the prize money.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, the owner has to weigh up whether he wants the experience of Royal Ascot or whether he wants the prize money, racing at Randwick for AU$20 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
The possibility that the prestige Ascot carries might sway Leung and Hayes come next April, after the Chairman\u2019s Sprint Prize, that\u2019s the positivity Ascot is picking from Hayes\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he\u2019s won two Everests and six international races in Hong Kong and 13 or 14 Group 1s, the owner then might want to do it, you never know,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if the owner wants to do that and the horse is well, I\u2019d take a chance, it wouldn\u2019t stop me. If the connections were keen and he was well, I\u2019ve got a top hat and tails, I\u2019d love to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even those thoughts are tempered by the current reality and the firm feeling in the Ka Ying Rising camp that although Ascot would be great sport, when it comes to the champion\u2019s rare athletic prowess and his undoubted greatness, he doesn\u2019t need to go there to prove how good he is.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owner treasures the horse,\u201d Hayes added. \u201cOwners in Hong Kong can only have a couple of horses, so to have something like Ka Ying Rising, I think he\u2019d rather go for longevity than prestige. I think that\u2019s his feeling at the moment, and that\u2019s the (Hong Kong) Jockey Club\u2019s feeling as well.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
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