How Hong Kong’s Hero Sprinter Is Turning Australians Into Regulars At Sha Tin
Ka Ying Rising has picked up where Romantic Warrior left off in taking Hong Kong racing to the world, and his biggest fans are now planning their holidays around him.
How Hong Kong’s Hero Sprinter Is Turning Australians Into Regulars At Sha Tin
Ka Ying Rising has picked up where Romantic Warrior left off in taking Hong Kong racing to the world, and his biggest fans are now planning their holidays around him.
7 October, 2026WHEN MAX UZ, Luke Klein and Luke Collison went to Hoi An on a boys’ trip, they already knew what they wanted from the city’s famous tailors: suits to wear when they went to watch Ka Ying Rising.
The three friends from Wollongong, all in their 20s, had booked a boys’ trip to Hoi An, where the tailors have a reputation for making a good suit quickly and cheaply. They came home with three, cut in the pale blue and orange colours of Ka Ying Rising, and wore them on a Tuesday morning at Randwick, where the world’s highest-rated sprinter was having his final trial before Saturday week’s Everest.
The trio drove more than 90 minutes up from the south coast to be there. By the end of the morning, Zac Purton and David Hayes had signed the suits.
“We had a boys’ trip planned to Hoi An, in Vietnam, and we heard they have great tailors and can make suits there, so we thought, ‘Right, let’s get a few suits made,'” Uz said.
The suits are only part of it. The friends have been backing Ka Ying Rising in their ‘multis’ – the multi-leg sports and racing all-ups popular with young Australians – since November last year, and if the horse salutes for a second straight year in The Everest they will have plenty of spending money for future trips.
“Our favourite thing to do is to have multis with everything into Ka Ying Rising,” Uz said. “Every bet we have is into Ka Ying Rising. He was 2.5 to start with and now he is 1.3. We will get a good lump sum when he crosses the line. And we already have a trip planned. We are going to Sha Tin for Champions Day in April, we are excited for that.”
That a young Australian punter now plans a holiday around a Hong Kong horse says something about how far the city’s racing has travelled in the past few years. Romantic Warrior did more than any horse before him to take Hong Kong racing to the world, winning a Cox Plate in Melbourne and carrying the city’s colours to Japan and the Middle East. Ka Ying Rising has picked up that legacy, and his following has grown with every lift in a rating that is currently the highest in the world.
It comes as Hong Kong works to sell its racing as a reason to visit. Racing tourism is now part of the city’s ‘Tourism 2.0’ blueprint, and the two horses have done as much for that pitch as any brochure ever could.
About 1500 people turned up at Randwick for what was, in the end, only a barrier trial – a practice race to build fitness – held on a working day. They queued for free coffee and breakfast, and many came dressed in Ka Ying Rising colours. Purton and Hayes stayed back for two hours after the trial and signed what must have been hundreds of autographs between them. Purton also produced five of his custom-made Ka Ying Rising jackets to give away.
“But I was impressed by the suits,” Purton said.
Hayes admitted the turnout had caught the stable off guard.
“We were all taken aback and surprised how much interest there was,” he said. “It is only a trial day. He has generated a massive following around the world now, which is great to have.”
Purton, the Australian-born jockey who has ridden more than 2000 winners, a record, in his adopted home of Hong Kong, said he had come to enjoy the role that comes with riding a horse like Ka Ying Rising.
“He has such a great following globally these days that it is a pleasure to be a part of his story and journey, so being down here for another barrier trial as lead-up to this incredible race is another part of that,” Purton said. “It’s great to see so many people here, the blokes from Wollongong in the suits they got made. Everybody is loving the jackets, and everything that goes with it.
“I am at the stage of my career where I am able to enjoy it, which is good.”
He said the attention goes well beyond racedays.
“Everybody wants their little piece of it, which is understandable, and we appreciate how much everybody else appreciates the horse,” Purton said. “We get a lot of messages about this horse every week. People are watching everything he does via social media, every gallop, little things from back in the stables, eating some grass. It has really evolved into a great story and hopefully he can continue the journey he is on.”
For Sydney couple Tom and Christina, that journey started early. They were watching when Ka Ying Rising won his first race, and the group chat lit up.
“We actually happened to see his first win, and we started messaging on the group chat with racing friends that he might be a nice horse, maybe Group 3 or something like that,” Tom said. “But he has turned out to be a lot better than that.”
Since then the couple have been to Hong Kong three times, most recently in December for the Hong Kong International Races. At Randwick they wore their HKIR jackets and had Purton sign a Ka Ying Rising plushie. It was not the first time they had met him.
“We got to meet Zac at the trackwork breakfast, so that was pretty cool,” Tom said. “Lovely guy.”
The horse brought them to Hong Kong, but the city has kept them coming back. These days they do not need a race meeting as an excuse.
“Even on other holidays that aren’t to Hong Kong, we sometimes just fly through Hong Kong so we can spend a few days there,” Tom said.
“We love it,” Christina said. “We often stop over. I love the Victoria Harbour area.”
Tom put it down to the food, the nightlife and, of course, the city’s two racecourses.
“For such a small place, area-wise, you are always finding new things to do,” he said.
Christina called the city “unreal”, and said a day at Sha Tin is nothing like a day at Randwick.
“The track itself is amazing, Sha Tin Racecourse as a whole. The raceday experience is really cool, how the people get behind Ka Ying Rising with the massive flags and posters,” she said. “It’s very different to Randwick.”
Ka Ying Rising was narrowly shaded by Ninja in the trial, though Hayes said he trialled better than he had a year ago, when he was also beaten before going on to win The Everest. Purton was not reading much into it.
“It’s funny how he has been down here for a trial twice and bludged his way through it,” he said. “Hopefully it is a different story on raceday.”
He will have plenty of company when he gets there. The Everest has become the race young Sydney goes to: nearly 60 per cent of last year’s crowd of 50,167 was under 26, and this year’s race is already sold out, nearly two weeks out.
Somewhere in that crowd there will be three boys from Wollongong, with everything riding on Hong Kong’s hero Ka Ying Rising. They won’t be hard to spot in their suits from Hoi An. ∎
