Ka Ying Rising cruised home at Sha Tin on Sunday. Photo / Hong Kong Jockey Club
It was New Zealand domination, both equine and human, as the superstars of Hong Kong racing warmed up for their biggest meeting of the year at Sha Tin on Sunday night.
New Zealand-bred galloper Ka Ying Rising flew the New Zealand flag first and fastest when winning his 15th straight race on his return to Hong Kong, after winning the A$20 million ($23m) Everest in Sydney last month.
Then it was a New Zealander based in Sydney who won the next two big races of the afternoon, as jockey James McDonald partnered Galaxy Patch and then his favourite galloper Romantic Warrior to wins in their Group 2 assignments.
All three feature races were the final lead-ups to the mega-money Hong Kong International Raceday at Sha Tin on December 14 and the performances of Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior will have some potential international raiders wondering if it is worth making the trip.
Jockey Zac Purton was pleased with the efforts of his ride Ka Ying Rising and said it was another confidence-boosting victory heading into next month’s Longines Hong Kong Sprint.
“He just looks better all the time. He’s mentally getting better. It’s hard to say that he’s improving or that he’s going to get better, but he’s certainly enjoying what he’s doing and handling it really well,” Purton said.
“It was good to see him win like that today without having to go to the bottom of him, so it’s a nice confidence-boosting win as he comes back.
“I’ve never seen him look so good. We were hoping he was going to do that, and it’s good for him to back up what we were thinking.
“Mid-race, Beauty Waves was probably just half a step too slow, I know we’ve run nearly a track-record time, but he [Ka Ying Rising] was on his tippy toes behind him wanting to go quicker.
“That’s the beauty with this horse, the faster they go, the better he is.
“I got to the stage where I had to let him roll into it because otherwise it was going to be detrimental to him.”
Trainer David Hayes continues to be amazed by Ka Ying Rising and said Sunday’s effort was one of the best he has seen from the son of Shamexpress.
“To the eye, I thought it was probably one of his best wins,” Hayes said. “That was as easy as I’ve seen him do it – maybe in this race last year, but I thought it was probably better than this one last year when he [Purton] did the kiss cam.”
Later, Romantic Warrior made a triumphant return to as he sauntered to an emphatic victory in the HK$5.35m Jockey Club Cup for jockey McDonald and trainer Danny Shum.
Resuming after 232 days between races after surgery to his left fore fetlock, Romantic Warrior lifted his world-record earnings to HK$217.7m as the Hong Kong International Sale graduate became the first horse to win a third Hong Kong Jockey Club Cup, after victories in 2022 and 2024.
“He’s so special. It takes the words out of my mouth, to be fair, it’s an absolute privilege to ride him and every time he goes around, there’s a huge smile on the face. He’s really touching, that horse,” McDonald said.
“Danny and his team just gloat over him, he’s a special horse – one of a kind.
“His training performance is incredible. To have him looking how he did, feeling how he did and performing how he did was a real testament to his training ability.”
Romantic Warrior will next target a record-extending fourth consecutive HK$40m Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Cup at the December 14 blockbuster.
“It’s not easy to take a horse 232 days back to a Group 2 over 2000 [metres]. He’s a superstar, he’s got talent and is smart,” Shum said.
“He didn’t look 7 years old, even when he turns 8, he will think he’s still a baby.
“I will just keep him happy; he’s fit at the moment. If you really want me to put a figure on it, I will say he was 85%. After this race, he will put on another 10 or 12 pounds.
“I’d like to thank Hugh Bowman, of course, he trials the horse a lot and teaches the horse to relax. He also helps the team and the stable a lot.”
– additional reporting Hong Kong Jockey Club
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.