Ka Ying Rising cruises home (HKJC)

Ka Ying Rising to top of Timeform world ratings

By John Ingles

Horse Racing

Tue September 16, 2025 · 3M ago

John Ingles traces champion Hong Kong sprinter Ka Ying Rising's journey to becoming Timeform's best horse in the world.

Last Saturday’s Sprint Cup at Haydock again demonstrated the openness – some might say the weakness – of the domestic sprint division. Big Mojo turned out to be the latest answer to the question of ‘whose turn is it this time?’ when it comes to the big sprints in Europe this year.

Contrast that with the situation in Hong Kong where Ka Ying Rising has been towering over the sprint division for much of the last twelve months. Last Sunday, he took his overall record to 14 out of 16, and his current winning streak to 13, at Sha Tin on the opening day of the new Hong Kong season in the HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup, a class 1 handicap which he had also won the previous season.

So much for handicaps equalising the chance of all the runners! Sent off at 20/1-on, Ka Ying Rising showed his usual dominance, quickening from just off the pace to win easing down. He was conceding lumps of weight to most of his rivals who were themselves useful sprinters, though runner-up Lucky Sweynesse, in receipt of 9 lb, had been Hong Kong’s champion sprinter two years earlier, when showing high-class form and winning the Hong Kong Sprint. Lucky Sweynesse may not be quite so good these days, but Ka Ying Rising’s win confirmed his Timeform rating of 135 which ranks him just a pound behind the two best sprinters this century, Battaash and Black Caviar.

Australian mare Black Caviar was unbeaten in a 25-race career, though she memorably went closing to losing her undefeated status under an overly-confident ride on her only start overseas in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2011.

Black Caviar after winning at Royal Ascot

Ka Ying Rising has now surpassed the ratings of Hong Kong’s two stand-out sprinters earlier this century, Silent Witness (rated 129) and Sacred Kingdom (131). Silent Witness won his first 17 races (before being beaten a short head on a first try at a mile), was a dual winner of the Hong Kong Sprint (2003 and 2004) and was twice named Hong Kong Horse of The Year, as well as Champion Sprinter three times. He didn’t remain in his own backyard, either, running three times in Japan where he won the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes in 2005.

Sacred Kingdom had a similar record, winning the Hong Kong Sprint twice (2007 and 2009) and twice being voted Horse of The Year, along with picking up four Champion Sprinter titles. He too was successful abroad, beating an international field in the KrisFlyer International Sprint in Singapore, and he ventured to Royal Ascot, though got worked up before finishing fifth to Art Connoisseur in the 2009 Golden Jubilee Stakes.

Both Sacred Kingdom and Silent Witness were bred in Australia out of Australian mares, but they came from New Zealand families. Ka Ying Rising, though, is a true Kiwi, being the product of New Zealand parents. His sire Shamexpress (rated 124), a grandson of the French-trained Nunthorpe and Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Last Tycoon, was trained in Australia where he won only three times from 19 starts but one of those wins came in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap at Flemington. He too tried his luck in Britain but wasn’t at his best in either the King’s Stand Stakes or July Cup, finishing in mid-division in both in 2013.

Ka Ying Rising owes his speed more to his sire than his dam Missy Moo. She was a winning sprinter in New Zealand at two but won over as far as a mile and a quarter later in her career when successful five times in all. She even ran over two miles on her final start but clearly didn’t stay in the Wellington Cup.

Ka Ying Rising is his dam’s first foal. He was sold to Australia as a youngster, where he was originally named Mr Express, before his export to Hong Kong in the summer of 2023 after winning a barrier trial. He joined Australian Hall of Fame trainer David Hayes, who is having his second stint based in Hong Kong, and Ka Ying Rising made his debut in December of that year.

There’s no qualifying process for handicaps in Hong Kong as there is Britain. Unraced horses go straight into handicaps from a default mark of 52. That turns out to be too high for some, of course, but in Ka Ying Rising’s case it obviously proved totally inadequate (last Sunday’s win came from an official Hong Kong mark of 134!).

While Ka Ying Rising duly made a winning debut, he suffered the only defeats of his career so far on his next two starts. They were very narrow ones, though – a nose and a short head – and he was beaten by the same rival, Wunderbar, both times. Wunderbar has turned out to be an above-average sprinter too and likewise made hay as he found his true level in handicaps early on, winning six of his first seven starts, and currently has a Hong Kong rating of 105.

But Ka Ying Rising has left him well behind. By the end of the 2023/24 Hong Kong season last summer, Ka Ying Rising had won four more handicaps from marks of 69, 75, 84 and 96, with the last of those wins coming in a Group 3 handicap, the Sha Tin Vase. That earned him the Champion Griffin title awarded to horses in their first Hong Kong season.

It wasn’t long into the following campaign that Ka Ying Rising graduated out of handicaps, and he went unbeaten in eight races in 2024/25, earning the Horse of The Year and Champion Sprinter titles. Along the way, he twice lowered the Sha Tin track record for 1200m, beating Sacred Kingdom’s time, which had stood since 2007, in the Jockey Club Sprint last November and then breaking his own record in the Centenary Sprint Cup in January.

Between those two wins, Ka Ying Rising faced international competition for the first time in the Hong Kong Sprint in December. Overcoming a slowish start from a wide draw, Ka Ying Rising had Japan’s top sprinter Satono Reve less than a length behind him in third. Satono Reve provides a link between Ka Ying Rising and British sprint form as Satono Reve was a good second to Lazzat, and finished clear of the rest, in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Ka Ying Rising and Satono Reve met again at Sha Tin in the spring in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, though this time Ka Ying Rising won with more than two lengths to spare after being eased, recording his best effort to date in a level-weights contest. Satono Reve had won a Group 1 back home since their first meeting, while Ka Ying Rising had added another three wins to his record since the Hong Kong Sprint.

Ka Ying Rising holds Satono Reve in December

They included two more Group 1 wins in the Centenary Sprint Cup, as already mentioned, and the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup which was his first try at seven furlongs. Winning the Chairman’s Sprint Prize meant that Ka Ying Rising completed the treble in the Hong Kong Speed Series, earning the HK$5 million bonus that goes with it. Lucky Sweynesse had been the only sprinter to complete the same treble since Silent Witness in the 2004/05 season.

There are no weight-for-age opportunities early in the new season which accounts for why Ka Ying Rising had to go back into a handicap to prepare for the world’s richest turf race, the Everest at Randwick in Sydney next month, which will be Ka Ying Rising’s first test overseas. That will be important for Ka Ying Rising’s standing, however high his rating, as up until now he’s largely been facing the same rivals. Spare a thought for Helios Express, for example, who finished placed behind Ka Ying Rising on seven occasions in the 2024/25 season, five times as runner-up!

Another current Hong Kong champion, over longer trips, Romantic Warrior, has shown the way, boosting his reputation with successful runs abroad in the Cox Plate in Australia in 2023 and the Yasuda Kinen in Japan in 2024, and was beaten only narrowly earlier this year in the Saudi Cup on dirt and the Dubai Turf.

Ka Ying Rising has only just had his fifth birthday earlier this month. It’s interesting to note that, alongside the upward trajectory of his ratings, we have the numbers to show that he has also got heavier and therefore stronger as he’s matured. Horses’ weights are published each time they run in Hong Kong, and Ka Ying Rising weighed in at 1,078 lb when he made his debut in December 2023. On his latest start, he was at his heaviest yet at 1,153 lb.

Ka Ying Rising is the world’s best horse on Timeform ratings, but top sprinters don’t tend to be given the credit they deserve in the ‘official’ World’s Best Racehorse Rankings. Their latest ratings have just been published, with Ka Ying Rising only joint-fifth on their list. He’s been given a rating of 126, 2 lb behind Ombudsman (Timeform rating 130), and 1 lb behind Field of Gold, Japan’s Saudi Cup winner Forever Young and Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty.

Maybe a defeat of a new set of rivals in the Everest will earn Ka Ying Rising a bit more respect because he looks one of the best sprinters seen anywhere this century.

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