The rail at Hong Kong barrier trials is usually the preserve of stopwatch-clutching hardcores. On Sunday it was three-deep with kids, full of sugar and sticky with ice cream, as Hong Kong\u2019s family carnival closed \u2013 and somewhere in the middle of the noise, Ka Ying Rising did what he always does: made it look easy.<\/p>\n
He cruised through his work, he didn\u2019t need to change legs \u2013 and the double act that follows him everywhere ran to schedule too. Zac Purton found the flaw. David Hayes found the funny side. Trackwork, trials, wins, and the two men\u2019s assessments of them: with this horse, it all arrives like clockwork.<\/p>\n
The formality itself was a 1000-metre turf trial at Sha Tin, and the world\u2019s highest-rated sprinter treated it as exactly that \u2013 leading throughout, never asked a serious question, two lengths clear in 56.73 seconds. What mattered more than the clock was the habit: for the second time in nine days, he\u2019d done it all on one lead leg, without ever switching.<\/p>\n
Purton wanted the full package and didn\u2019t get it \u2013 again.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrustrating,\u201d Purton said. \u201cThe fact that he just does it so easily on that one leg is unique, but he\u2019s going to have to get back to changing his legs and doing everything right to get back into the zone that he was in last season. Hopefully the case is that he\u2019s saving it for raceday. It\u2019d be disappointing if it wasn\u2019t, but when he starts to do everything right, he continues to do everything right, right? It\u2019s just like he\u2019s forgotten what he needs to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hayes laughed the whole thing off. \u201cWhen he\u2019s running course records, he changes legs. When he\u2019s in trials, he doesn\u2019t need to, you know?\u201d he said. \u201cAnd Zac says he\u2019s never ridden a horse that can go so fast on one leg.\u201d<\/p>\n
What the trainer saw instead was a horse in exactly the frame of mind he wanted. \u201cI just like the way he acted before the trial,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cI think he\u2019s in the right headspace and ready to run a really good race next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201creally good race\u201d is Sunday\u2019s Group 3 HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup \u2013 on paper just another win at Hong Kong\u2019s minimum odds of 1.05, but also base camp for a horse attempting to become the second back-to-back winner of The Everest. A 21st consecutive win in a streak that is becoming less of a statistic and more of a cultural phenomenon. Hayes isn\u2019t treating it as anything more than the first foothold.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou spell horses, trying to make them bigger and stronger, especially if they\u2019re a sprinter, and he\u2019s bigger and stronger than he\u2019s ever been, so I still think we\u2019ve got another season of him improving,\u201d he said. He\u2019ll carry topweight on Sunday \u2013 135 pounds, but Hayes had a way of putting a positive spin on that as well: \u201cIf it was a real handicap, he would not have 135 pounds but 155,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n