It’s two months until Ka Ying Rising attempts to scale The Everest and Zac Purton couldn’t hide his excitement when he confirmed the world’s highest-rated sprinter feels “a bit stronger” after his return to Sha Tin’s dirt track on Monday.
Ka Ying Rising spent the off-season at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s mainland training facility in Conghua after his eight-race campaign concluded with a dominant win in April’s G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m).
The five-year-old, who will make his seasonal reappearance in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup (1200m) – a Class 1 at Sha Tin on September 7 – returned to David Hayes’ Sha Tin stable last week and reacquainted with his regular raceday rider on Monday.
After the 400-metre breeze up the straight, Purton said he was pleased to see that the four-time Group 1 winner had developed physically during his three-month spell at Conghua.
“He’s good and he feels a bit stronger,” Purton told Idol Horse. “He’s put on 20 pounds and you can certainly feel it.
“He only breezed the last 400m but he had a good blow and he pulled up knowing that he’d done a little bit of work, so he needs to start improving quickly to get him back to raceday.”
While Ka Ying Rising smashed Sha Tin’s 1200m record twice and took his record to 13 wins from 15 starts with a flawless run of eight wins last season, Purton said he always envisaged Hayes’ gelding maturing further, like many horses based out of Sha Tin.
“I was hoping he would get a bit stronger because he did everything last season as a relatively young four-year-old and progressed as the season went on,” Purton added. “I was hoping that when he had a break, like a lot of horses in Hong Kong, he would just seem to develop overnight.
“Horses in Hong Kong seem to mature later than they do in other parts of the world. They get imported and the environment is tough, they might not eat as much, the racing is hard and the weather can be difficult to adjust to. It takes them that bit longer to fully mature and you can get horses that even develop from five to six.
“In saying that, I was always of the belief that he was going to strengthen up and mature because physically he always looked a little bit immature last season. Fortunately, it feels like he has.”
Looking ahead, Hayes laid out the plan for Ka Ying Rising before he returns on the opening day of the season next month.
“He’s trialling this Friday and then he’ll be trialling on the Saturday before the start of the season,” Hayes said. “He seems to be going well and I’ve been very happy with him since he’s been back.
“He enjoyed a well-earned holiday up at Conghua and arrived back down at Sha Tin on Friday. There will be more news on plans around The Everest when we get closer to the race on the opening day of the season.”
While it is not yet certain who will be travelling to Australia with Ka Ying Rising, Australian Turf Club head of racing and wagering Nevesh Ramdhani confirmed Hong Kong’s leading sprinter will arrive in Sydney on September 22 before trialling at Randwick on October 7.
He will be ridden in the trial by Purton, who said he will jet back for racing at Happy Valley the following day.
“I’ll fly down and trial him on Tuesday the week before The Everest, then come back to ride at Happy Valley. Then, I’ll go back down again the day before he races,” he said. “It is exciting and now that the good horses in Australia are starting to roll out, we are starting to get a look at what the field might look like as well.” ∎
