Ka Ying Rising’s connections were left reaching for superlatives after Hong Kong’s newest sprint superstar broke his own track record at Sha Tin on Sunday [Jan 19] – in the process climbing to second spot on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings.
As a result, the region now stands in the enviable position of housing both top horses on the list, as Romantic Warrior spends his 27th week at #1.
Trainer David Hayes labelled Ka Ying Rising as “quite freakish” after the four-year-old followed up his Hong Kong Sprint victory with a second G1 success in the Centenary Sprint Cup over the same 1,200 metre (6f) trip at Sha Tin.
Zac Purton described Ka Ying Rising as a “really special horse” after he stopped the clock in 1m07.20s to claim the HK$13m ($1.67m/£1.36m) contest for his tenth win in 12 career starts – and a move up to #2 (from #5, +118pt) on the TRC Rankings.
After crossing over from his outside draw to claim the lead, Ka Ying Rising delivered a powerful display of sustained sprinting to leave these domestic rivals chasing his shadow throughout. Indeed, Purton was able to ease him down inside the final furlong as he scored by 3¼ lengths from Helios Express. Put simply, he was in a different league.
“He did surprise Zac when he jumped well and then went to the lead,” said Hayes. “To lead those fast horses so easily just shows his versatility. He can take a sit, or he just leads. He's certainly the best sprinter I've had anything to do with and probably the best horse.
“He's quite freakish what he does. The last 100m today, Zac switched the engine off, so in the two track records he's broken, he's actually eased him down the last 100m or 80m.
“He just doesn't lose - and I know he lost twice when he was immature - but now he's mature, he's just got that ability to win. He's got amazing cruising speed and he'll quicken off it, which is very hard to compete against.”
Purton added: “He’s doing things that other sprinters haven’t done, winning with the ease he’s winning with, running the times, he’s running.
“We’ve had a lot of champion sprinters grace our turf here and they’ve all had the chance to run the times, he’s run. So, yeah, he’s starting to become a really special horse.”
Ka Ying Rising will now chase a HK$5m bonus on offer to any horse who sweeps the three-leg Hong Kong Sprint Series, set to continue with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup on Feb 23 and the Chairman’s Sprint Prize on April 27.
Longer term, Hayes is also eyeing the tantalising prospect of a visit to Australia for the Everest on Oct 18. “It's the richest turf race in the world, it's at his distance, so it's getting more realistic every month we go on,” he said.
On the same card, Hong Kong Mile winner Voyage Bubble (#8 from #15, +68pt) moved into the world’s top ten by completing back-to-back successes in the G1 Stewards’ Cup under world #2 jockey James McDonald, who had a treble on the card.
“I reckon this is the best he’s felt since I’ve ridden him,” said McDonald. “He strode around to the start with a real purpose and he’s such an easy horse to read. He’s superb. He’s just bombproof, jumps fast, puts himself in a good position and quickens.”
McDonald will ride world #1 Romantic Warrior when the world’s highest-earning racehorse returns to action in the G1 Jebel Hatta at Meydan’s Dubai Carnival meeting on Friday [Jan 24]. Seven rivals are headed by last year’s winner Measured Time.
• View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires
• Unlike traditional methods of racehorse rankings, TRC Global Rankings are a measure of an individual’s level of achievement over a rolling three-year period, providing a principled hierarchy of the leading horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and sires using statistical learning techniques. Racehorse rankings can be compared to similar exercises in other sports, like the golf’s world rankings or the ATP rankings in tennis.
They are formulated from the last three years of races we consider Group or Graded class all over the world and update automatically each week according to the quality of a horse’s performances and their recency, taking into account how races work out.