Royal Ascot is prepared to wait for Ka Ying Rising – even if the wait stretches years – with the meeting’s director of racing and public affairs Nick Smith ruling out any prospect of the world’s top-rated sprinter appearing at the royal meeting in 2027.
Smith was at Sha Tin on Saturday to announce Britain’s Shergar Cup team, and used the trip to sit down one-on-one with Ka Ying Rising’s trainer David Hayes on Friday.
“There’s no prospect of racing next year at Royal Ascot,” Smith said. “I sat with David Hayes for quite a bit of time on Friday, and there’s no doubt he would like to have runners at Royal Ascot again.
“The owners certainly aren’t in a situation to commit or probably even consider it at this time. But he knows and the owners know that the offer is there, the incentives will be there. They won’t be the sort of ridiculous numbers and incentives that have been bandied about, it just doesn’t work that way in Europe.”
Ka Ying Rising is currently freshening up at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Conghua training complex in Guangdong ahead of a season built around a second crack at Sydney’s AU$20 million Everest in October – the race Hayes has consistently identified as the roadblock to any Ascot ambition.
Smith made clear Ascot accepts that reality.
“Ultimately we respect the programme that they’ve got,” he said. “It’s always been about the Hong Kong programme and about The Everest. They’ve got an Everest slot. There’s a lot of financial investment in that. You’ve got to protect it.
“He’s still a youngish horse. He’s got a lot of future in front of him. If there comes a time when they want to do a different challenge, then we’re going to be here for them. But we’re not for a second at all saying that he has to run at Royal Ascot to prove a legacy. That’s not true.”
Any future raid, Smith said, would follow the template of Australia’s most celebrated Ascot visitors.
“If he ever runs, it would be a long-term project. It won’t be next year, it may not be the year after, and in my experience the most successful overseas ventures have been the ones that have been meticulously planned from a long time out. Nature Strip’s plan was a year out, Black Caviar’s plan was a year out.
“The way that this horse is being managed is an example to everybody about how to manage a horse for longevity, and they put together a perfect schedule to do that.” ∎
