Ka Ying Rising broke his own track record for the third consecutive time when surging to an unprecedented 21 straight wins in Sunday’s Group Three HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (1,200m) at Sha Tin.
David Hayes’ speed machine led all the way to knock almost an entire second off his previous mark of 1:07.10, recording a scintillating time of 1:06.11.
Nine-time Hong Kong champion jockey Zac Purton piloted the world’s best sprinter to win by seven and three-quarter lengths over Copartner Prance in what was his most dominant victory yet.
“When I pulled up, I was interested to see what time he ran, because the track was very fast in a barrier trial here last week. I sort of let him get into his rhythm and I asked him for an effort, so I just wanted to see where we’re at and obviously we’re in a good place,” Purton said.
Purton and Hayes agree that the six-year-old son of Shamexpress has matured into an impressive individual over previous seasons, and has returned in his strongest condition to date.
“We’ve both said that he’s a bigger, stronger horse, and that didn’t mean that he’d come back fat, he was just physically more developed and stronger and he’s feeling great,” Purton said.
“He hasn’t raced since April, so any amount of racing is going to improve him. I’m not going to stand here and say that he’s going to improve lengths off that – he doesn’t need to, but I’m sure he’s going to pull up better for the run.”
Hayes echoed Purton’s sentiments, with the super sprinter putting in a perfect first-up performance at his highest body weight so far.
“He’s just a different beast, and it shows because he’s 29lb heavier than last season’s track record time, and probably 9lb above his best winning weight. So he’s got better – bigger and better. I’ve got to get a new trophy cabinet because of him,” Hayes said.
Hayes was thrilled with the authority with which Ka Ying Rising won, and despite the manner of the victory was not dismissing the strength of the opposition.
“Zac basically eased him down last year in the same race for the last 200m – he let him run to the line today, and he hasn’t been let run to the line many times. Of course, he smashed his own record, you don’t see that very often by a second,” Hayes said.
“It just adds more relevance to the win, you know, there could be people out there saying ‘he beat nothing’ – a few of those horses have won HKD $20 million, $25 million. They’re well-rated horses, they’re good horses around the world, but they don’t look like it when they race him – they get taken out of the comfort zone.”
“I watch him mostly behind the gates, and he’s just walking around like he knows what he’s doing now. You look at him in his early races, he was up on his toes, and he didn’t have the ‘good horse’ attitude. He’s got a ‘good horse’ attitude now. He’s coping with everything that’s thrown at him.”
Ka Ying Rising entered quarantine just two hours after Sunday’s race, as he prepares to defend his A$20 million Group One Everest title at Randwick on October 17.
“He goes into quarantine at 3.30pm today, and then he’ll just have a recovery week, and a little piece of work next week – probably a couple – then he’s on the plane back to Canterbury,” Hayes said.
“The lovely thing about Canterbury is that we know he thrives there, and I know the routine now, so I’ll be more confident with what we’re doing than last year. He’ll have 13 days here, and as soon as the quarantine ends here, there’s a plane organised,” Hayes said.
Ka Ying Rising secured the second leg of a double for Purton, who also scored aboard Lightness Of Music for Danny Shum Chap-shing in the Class Four Duddell Handicap (1,000m).
