World #1 Romantic Warrior bids for a Hong Kong Cup hat-trick on Sunday – but the locals also won’t hear of defeat for their new speedball star
Hong Kong has made a habit of unearthing world-class racehorses in recent years. Golden Sixty followed on from Beauty Generation, and around the same time Wellington made way for Lucky Sweynesse in the always formidable sprint division. California Spangle has always been hovering, and then along comes Romantic Warrior with his international triumphs to top them all.
That’s why he is world #1 on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings, a position also held in the past by Golden Sixty, and a ranking Romantic Warrior will defend on Sunday [Dec 8] as he bids to complete a hat-trick in the Hong Kong Cup at the Longines-sponsored Hong Kong International Races.
The number of top-bracket horses produced in Hong Kong is totally disproportionate to a local horse population of around 1,300. It beggars belief, quite frankly … and now we are on standby for a potential new megastar to be crowned at Sunday’s showpiece card.
His name is Ka Ying Rising. A four-year-old gelding bred in New Zealand, he has won eight of his 10 starts, his last seven in succession, and he appears to have the Hong Kong Sprint at his mercy.
Ka Ying Rising looks the next Hong Kong sprinting sensation to follow in the footsteps of the likes of that brilliant pair Silent Witness and Sacred Kingdom.
Blowing kisses to the crowd
He recently smashed a 17-year track record for six furlongs at Sha Tin held by Sacred Kingdom, and he did it being eased down, his jockey Zac Purton blowing kisses to the crowd.
Ka Ying Rising is trained by David Hayes, an Australian Hall Of Famer, who has sent out winners of the Melbourne Cup, Japan Cup, multiple G1s in his native country, as well as countless Hong Kong feature races. He is currently on his second stint in Hong Kong, where he has trained more than 600 winners.
Hayes says he has never had a horse of Ka Ying Rising’s level of ability after only 10 races. “The potential he is showing is above anything I’ve trained at this stage of his career,” he says.
That’s quite an accolade – Hayes trained the Golden Slipper winner Miss Finland, top sprinters Redkirk Warrior and Nicconi, as well Robert Sangster’s Special, who held the track record down the straight at Flemington until it was broken by Black Caviar.
I was curious to know what it is that makes Ka Ying Rising so extraordinary. Hayes reckons it is all to do with the way the gelding accelerates, explaining: “He’s got what I call that ‘extra action’. He lengthens like Black Caviar and Winx – though I’m not comparing him to them – he’s got that different sort of action, where he goes from 80 per cent to full pace.
“His stride-length is very noticeable,” Hayes continues. “Apart from that, he’s a pretty straightforward horse. Every time there’s a challenge, he rises to it, like when as a three-year-old he was asked to carry 135lb (9st 9lb) from a wide barrier against older horses. That day I was very worried, and he just stepped up.
“One thing I’m overlooking is that he’s a rare horse in that he can be ridden hard from the gates – and Zac often does – but then he comes back to him and he relaxes so beautifully mid-race, and that allows for that big sprint finish.”
Purton has described the gelding as “the perfect ride”, adding: “It’s scary how easily he’s doing it in his races.”
Ka Ying Rising was sourced in New Zealand and purchased by Lindsay Park, the Hayes family’s racing stable and training grounds, located these days at Euroa, an attractive country town in north-east Victoria, about a two-hour drive from Melbourne.
After being broken in, the son of Shamexpress (a grandson of Last Tycoon) finished his education at Euroa and was then put into full work by Hayes’s three sons, who form a training partnership.
‘He was pretty good’
“They trialled him three times and they pretty quickly let me know that he was pretty good,” says the trainer. “He never got out of first gear in the trials. We then had to make a decision whether we sold him in Australia or raced him in Hong Kong, and we decided to bring him up to Hong Kong.
“It was simply because we had an owner, who had a permit [to import a horse], and it was good timing for everyone.”
Hayes had previously had success with a son of Shamexpress named Global Harmony, who had shown heaps of ability but then refused to leave the stalls in his races, which led to stewards banning him. This, however, did not discourage the trainer when it came to the purchase of Ka Ying Rising.
On the distaff side of his pedigree, Ka Ying Rising is out of a Per Incanto mare, who in turn is out of a mare by Rhythm, a champion American two-year-old trained by Shug McGaughey to win 1989 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park.
All of Ka Ying Rising’s 10 starts have been over six furlongs but David Hayes had always thought the gelding was more a seven furlongs to a mile type. “Of course, he’s so brilliant he hasn’t done that yet,” he says. “But I think it’s worth a try over the mile.
“If he doesn’t have any setbacks, he could certainly go for the Classic Mile [for four-year-olds]. I just want to see how far he goes but I wouldn’t want to go longer than that.
“The Classic Mile is suitable because at set weights, he will be 40lb well-in; he will have a rating of 130 coming up against horses rated 85. If ever there’s a chance to try him at a mile at his fifth run of the prep, this is it. We will see how he does it.
“After that, he’ll go back to sprinting and his focus will be The Everest [at Randwick in Sydney on Oct 18, 2025]. Even if he hacked up in the Classic Mile, I’d still like to train him as a sprinter after that.”
David Hayes: renaissance man
Hayes trained for 10 seasons in Hong Kong from 1996 and then returned to Australia. He came back to Hong Kong for a second stint in 2020, just as Covid had taken a grip and restrictions were enforced.
“It was tough because I had a stable full of horses and owners I had never met,” he admits. “Because of Covid, we were restricted, we couldn’t move. So I was training for people I didn’t know and I lost an incredible amount of horses in the first two years.
“I lost 40 horses during that time,” he goes on. “I could count on one hand the number I lost the first time I came to Hong Kong. I had to re-set when the place opened up and I have managed to keep most horses in the stable now. Looking back, it was very frustrating and very, very unpleasant. But it has settled down.
“It’s more like the old Hong Kong for me now, though I would say it’s a different culture these days so it has been tougher. But looking back to my first time here, there were also some very good trainers in those days, too. Patrick Biancone, John Moore, Ivan Allan … they were special trainers.”
While Hayes found himself battling to keep the stable in its familiar successful guise in Hong Kong, Lindsay Park at Euroa was ailing, too. “It was like a run on a bank,” he says. “Everybody wanted to get out; the hotel had only 30 per cent occupancy. It was looking a bit sad.
“It was a perfect storm really, because I left for Hong Kong, my nephew [Tom Dabernig] left unexpectedly, and then Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum died. That left my son Ben holding the fort.”
Ben was subsequently joined by his brother JD, and more recently by a third brother Will to form a training triumvirate. With multiple G1 winner Mr Brightside as a proper flagship horse, they have turned the stable’s fortunes around, which Hayes says has given he and his wife Prue a lot of pleasure watching from afar.
“We are very proud of them,” he says. “They have been terrific. They place their horses conservatively, they have good strike-rates, and they are back doing really well. They did it the hard way.”
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