When Ka Ying Rising quickened through his final gallop at Sha Tin on Friday morning, David Hayes saw everything he needed to see ahead of the sprinter’s trip to Australia – and enough to convince him the unbeaten star would return an even better horse.
The trainer pointed to the example of Hong Kong’s great globetrotter Romantic Warrior, who won a thrilling 2023 G1 Cox Plate on his first trip abroad and then rattled off an incredible sequence of performances across four different countries in the 18 months that followed.
Hayes has his theories why a trip away can benefit a horse: “handled well”, he says they come back sharper, tougher and more seasoned. “It stimulates them – gets their brains ticking over in a different way,” he said. “They don’t always run to their very best when they first travel, but they often return home better horses.”
He reeled off some other examples including his sons’ horse Mr Brightside, who flopped in the Champions Mile but reclaimed form with a Group 1 win in Australia; Antino, who ran 11th on international duty only to produce arguably a career-best back home; and even Hayes’ own 1990 Japan Cup hero Better Loosen Up, who returned to Australia and won the 1991 Australian Cup by five lengths – a margin well beyond his usual narrow victories.
“As a trainer you can only hope they come back better for it,” Hayes said. “And if Ka Ying Rising does, well, that’s a pretty exciting thought.”
Ka Ying Rising will travel with stablemate Ka Ying Cheers, who has retired from Hong Kong racing but will be given a chance to rejuvenate his career with Hayes’ co-training sons at the family’s Lindsay Park base.
Hayes noted however that his star sprinter seemed perfectly content on his own, and that even the shift from one end of Sha Tin to the other – and away from the bustle of morning trackwork, particularly the echo-chamber concrete tunnel that leads to the track – had already had a positive impact on the gelding’s temperament.
“He’s actually quieter in quarantine than he is going through the tunnels,” Hayes said. “I think he really appreciates being on his own. He doesn’t get worked up, doesn’t get sweaty, and just looks very settled. That can only be a good sign for Canterbury, because it’s not busy there and he’ll thrive in that environment.”
Hayes was speaking after Ka Ying Rising’s final fast work ahead of a flight to Australia on Sunday, after which he will quarantine at Canterbury Racecourse in Sydney before lining up in The Everest on October 18.
On a muggy morning at Sha Tin, the air heavy with humidity as Tropical Storm Mitag brewed about 400 kilometres to the east-southeast of Hong Kong, Ka Ying Rising produced a piece of work that pleased his trainer.
Working on the course proper under lights at 3.43am, Ka Ying Rising, partnered by a trackwork rider, cantered down the straight 1,000m straight track from the quarantine stables on to the course proper before slowly building down the back and sprinting home over the last 400 metres in 23.6 seconds. The early start was necessary because horses in quarantine must work either before or after the general training population.
“He was asked just to increase down the straight, run home in about 23 (seconds), and take his time pulling up,” Hayes said. “He was trotting really well when he went past, he looked sound, relaxed, his recovery was really good. It ticked all the boxes – he didn’t even raise a sweat. And the really pleasing thing for me was that he changed legs – one of Zac’s bugbears is that he never changes legs, but he did today.”
Hayes confirmed that his trusted team will be on hand from the moment Ka Ying Rising touches down in Sydney.
“My assistant trainer Jimmy Wong is going down initially because he’ll just do slow work for the week,” he said. “Then I’ll go down with Zac (Purton) for the trial on October 7, come back for two meetings here, and return for the week of the race.”
It means Ka Ying Rising will settle into Canterbury under the familiar care of his “A.T.” before stepping out across town at Randwick for the world’s richest turf race. Regardless of the result, Hayes is bullish his horse will be better for the experience – a scary thought for rivals. ∎
