Every so often in sport, athletes produce truly extraordinary performances, simultaneously defying convention and setting soaring new standards.
Last Sunday (19 January), KA YING RISING – one of the finest equine athletes ever seen in Hong Kong – unleashed a remarkable display of sheer speed to win the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup (1200m), clocking 1m 07.20s to shatter his own course record.
For those fortunate enough to witness it first-hand, it was a surreal experience to watch a horse having only his 12th start perform in the way KA YING RISING did for David Hayes and Zac Purton and there is no doubt he is an outstanding sprinter.
Hong Kong has long been blessed by champion sprinters and it is daunting to think that SACRED KINGDOM’s previous course record of 1m 07.50s had stood for 17 years – and has now been lowered twice in the space of three starts by KA YING RISING.
KA YING RISING’S phenomenal progress reflects positively on the training expertise of David and Zac’s skill as a jockey, given that he is still in only his second season of racing and his stunning emergence as the world’s premier sprinter is another endorsement of Hong Kong’s world-class racing.
With a thoroughbred population of about only 1,200 horses in work, Hong Kong continues to excel on the global stage and last weekend with the victories of KA YING RISING and VOYAGE BUBBLE, who emphatically won the G1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m), the form from the LONGINES Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) in December was soundly franked.
As spectacular as KA YING RISING is, VOYAGE BUBBLE remains a study of admirable consistency at the highest level with three Group 1s, a BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) and a Hong Kong Classic Mile (1600m) among nine victories from 23 starts.
While we saw the continued emergence of several interesting new horses last weekend, including NOISY BOY, SKY JOY, PATCH OF COSMO and BUNDLE AWARD, which is exciting ahead of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series, the strength of Hong Kong racing was again illustrated on Tuesday (21 January) in London with the release of the LONGINES World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.
Predictably, ROMANTIC WARRIOR (125) led the way for Hong Kong, ranking joint fifth in the world with CALANDAGAN, DO DEUCE, FIERCENESS and SIERRA LEONE behind CITY OF TROY and LAUREL RIVER (both 128), VIA SISTINA (127) and GOLIATH (126).
Based on his G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) triumph, KA YING RISING was declared the world’s joint-best sprinter along with American speedster COGBURN and Australia’s I WISH I WIN.
Given what transpired at Sha Tin last Sunday, it will take a herculean performance to displace KA YING RISING from occupying the top position outright in 2025.
ROMANTIC WARRIOR, KA YING RISING (121) and VOYAGE BUBBLE (120) are among 12 Hong Kong horses to attain an international rating of 115 in 2024 along with CALIFORNIA SPANGLE (119), STRAIGHT ARRON (118), BEAUTY ETERNAL (117), LUCKY SWEYNESSE (117), BEAUTY JOY (116), GALAXY PATCH (116), VICTOR THE WINNER (116), HELIOS EXPRESS (115) and INVINCIBLE SAGE (115).
The presence of these elite performers among the very best in the world is a credit to the owners who invest significantly to source the best available equine talent and then entrust these horses to our outstanding trainers, their stable teams and our top-line jockeys.
Similarly, Hong Kong can be proud of our racing product with eight of our 12 Group 1 races included in the LONGINES World’s Top 100 Group 1 races. One of the Club’s abiding objectives is the staging of outstanding international competition and, fittingly, all four of our LONGINES HKIR features are among the top 100 Group 1 races.
Flagship meetings such as LONGINES HKIR, FWD Champions Day and BMW Hong Kong Derby Day are not possible without the support of our loyal sponsors, the backing of owners, trainers and jockeys and the dedication of the Club’s hard-working teams and I would like to thank everybody involved for making these meetings so successful.
History beckons for Zac Purton at Happy Valley
With the dust settling on another incredible day of racing at Sha Tin last Sunday, our focus again turns to Zac Purton and his pursuit of Douglas Whyte’s Hong Kong record of 1,813 wins by a jockey. With 1,812 victories in Hong Kong, Zac could achieve his goal at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (22 January) with seven rides.
Zac has several good chances with rides on SPIRIT OF PEACE and BEAUTY ALLIANCE for John Size, SIGHT HAPPY for David Hayes, FIREFOOT for Chris So, AESTHETICISM for Pierre Ng, RIDING TOGETHER for David Eustace and VIEW OF THE WORLD for Dennis Yip.
Several of Zac’s mounts have good claims with SPIRIT OF PEACE having no luck at his first two starts and being badly held up in the straight last start, while BEAUTY ALLIANCE makes his Happy Valley debut after winning two starts ago at Sha Tin and SIGHT HAPPY has performed well in four starts at the course and distance with a win two starts back.
FIREFOOT and VIEW OF THE WORLD are last-start winners, AESTHETICISM has been run well at his past three starts without winning and RIDING TOGETHER ran second to VICTOR THE WINNER in a recent Happy Valley trial after he was crowded and found to have mucus in the trachea after his Hong Kong debut at Sha Tin on 22 December.
It promises to be an exciting – and potentially historic – night at Happy Valley and I wish Zac all the best.
The Class 3 Victoria Park Handicap is carded as Race 9 at 10.50pm and is run over 1200m for prizemoney of HK$1.86 million.
The pace in the race will be good with ALLGREEKTOME (Luke Ferraris) leading from gate three. LUCKY ARCHANGEL (Angus Chung) is drawn on the rails and will take the sit behind the leader, with PRAWNS ELEVEN (Matthew Poon) prominent and SERGEANT PEPPER (Keith Yeung) going forward from barrier 11.
VIEW OF THE WORLD (Zac Purton) was having his first start at the track when he sat just behind the speed from an inside draw and sprinted quickly in the straight to easily beat GLORY B on 26 December. VIEW OF THE WORLD has spent time at Conghua since and has been working well leading to this race. He is drawn well and is my win and place selection.
ETERNAL FORTUNE (Hugh Bowman) was rewarded for his consistency when breaking through after three minor placings with a fighting win, narrowly beating SPICY GOLD over this course and distance two weeks ago. From a good draw again in gate four, ETERNAL FORTUNE is a place chance.
PRAWNS ELEVEN was used early to lead last start at Sha Tin on 1 January before fading to finish seventh to DANCING CODE. PRAWNS ELEVEN has been to Conghua since and has drawn ideally in gate two. He is also a place chance.
CALIFORNIA DEEPLY (Brenton Avdulla) won well over SHINKANSEN at his previous run over this course and trip in December and he is also a place chance, while A AMERIC TE SPECSO has raced well without winning in two starts this season and, from a wide draw, will go back and be running home strongly for Andrea Atzeni and has place claims.
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