David Hayes and Zac Purton hailed Ka Ying Rising’s G1 The Everest win as the pinnacle of their respective careers after the world’s highest-rated sprinter produced a monumental performance on Saturday at Royal Randwick.
Ka Ying Rising was met with a lion’s mouth roar from the assembled faithful at a packed Royal Randwick as he hit the front 150m from home and edged clear to prevail by a length and a quarter in the world’s richest race on turf under Purton.
“It’s certainly the biggest thrill in my life,” an elated Hayes said. “It’s a long straight at Randwick when you hit the front with 300m to go, but I think he held on pretty well.”
Hong Kong’s champion sprinter chased the speed in third until Purton called upon the five-year-old to reel in Overpass 350m from home. Once he headed the long-time leader, Ka Ying Rising coasted home to take his win streak to 14 with success in the A$20 million (HK$101 million) feature.
“It’s probably the pinnacle of my career,” Purton said. “Overpass skipped for home early and I had to chase him. To my horse’s credit, he wasn’t letting him go. He got the better of me in the trial and we said that he’s not going to get the better of me in the race.”
While his World Pool price of 1.5 may have suggested victory was merely a formality for Ka Ying Rising, it seemed anything but that to connections.
His highly scrutinised barrier trial last Tuesday – which saw him uncharacteristically warm and worked up – combined with the social media rumours that questioned the horse’s fitness on Sunday, were enough to add pressure to the task.
“It’s been the longest 10 days in my life,” Hayes said. “I’ve got a wonderful team of staff and the pressure the boys were under when that Twitter attack happened – thank god they don’t read English very well – was immense. They did a fantastic job.
“Zac was worried after the trial, but when he saddled up calmly, I thought he had to run below form not to win today.”
After the rich sprint, which saw Tempted back in second and Jimmysstar in third, Hayes was also already targeting an Everest defence for Ka Ying Rising.
“Oh yeah (we’ll be back next year), definitely,” he said. “I think there’s more to come with this horse.”
After the race, Purton reflected on Ka Ying Rising’s remarkable international success.
“It’s been the biggest build up to a race that I’ve ever been involved in and he’s a special horse,” Purton said. “I don’t think we saw him at his best today but even though he wasn’t at his best he’s still good enough.”
“You appreciate it more now because [my career] is nearly over, but I’m so lucky. I’ve had such a good career and I’m so lucky to have this horse come along now.” ∎
