Hong Kong’s champion sprinter was narrowly shaded by Everest rival Ninja in his Randwick trial on Tuesday morning, but Zac Purton reckons the bigger problem starts once Ka Ying Rising settles into life in Australia.
“I think when he gets to Australia, he just gets away from us a little bit all the time, which is a bit frustrating,” Purton said on Australian radio show Giddy Up after the trial.
His appetite for Canterbury’s grass is one example.
“He gets to Canterbury and he just picks grass all day,” Purton said. “I keep telling David [Hayes], stop letting him eat grass. He doesn’t eat grass in Hong Kong.
“But he can’t help it, and David said he loves it. I said, ‘I don’t care if he loves it. He’s a racehorse, not a pet.’”
Ka Ying Rising is hardly short of attention either. Six handlers are reportedly looking after him in Australia, and Purton already has a suggestion for keeping them occupied.
“They can walk him up and down the streets all day. That’d be my preference.”
On a Soft 7 surface at Randwick, the field stayed away from the inside half of the track. Ka Ying Rising jumped straight to the lead and was still travelling under restraint turning for home before Ninja ambled up to him.
The pair went stride for stride before Ninja edged ahead late to score by a neck in 59.46 seconds. Neither horse was asked for a major effort.
Purton rated the trial slightly better than Ka Ying Rising’s corresponding hit-out before last year’s Everest, although he again felt the softer ground dulled the sprinter when it was time to quicken.
“He seemed a little bit more comfortable in the ground through the most part of the trial, but he just labours in the ground when you want him to pick up,” he said.
“He didn’t change his leg, and then he pulled up having a really big blow. He blew more after this trial than he did after his race in Hong Kong.”
Ka Ying Rising had been deliberately let off the leash first-up at Sha Tin, smashing his own 1200-metre track record by almost a second before travelling to Australia, and Purton admitted he would have preferred a more dominant display at Randwick.
“Oh, of course there’s concern,” he said. “You’d prefer putting five, six, seven lengths on them and having a nice, easy time of things. But, you know, the track’s a bit soft and he’s had a good blow. He’ll improve, but he’s going to need to.”
Purton made Ka Ying Rising work beyond the line, just as he did before last year’s Everest, believing the champion sprinter needed to do a little more after cruising through much of the trial.
“He’s running 1200 in a race and, you know, the way he’s bludging, he’s sort of not doing as much as we want him to do, so we’ll make him do that little bit extra.”
The grazing is mostly in jest, but Purton is more serious about the going. The early forecast is in his favour, even if Hayes is less troubled by softer conditions if they eventuate.
“I’ve been trying to tell him for two years he doesn’t like soft ground, but he’s not convinced,” Purton said. “He doesn’t believe me.” ∎
