Ka Ying Rising bagged a sixth straight win when cruising home in Sunday's HKSAR Chief Executive's Cup (Handicap).
The remarkable five-year-old, trained by David Hayes and ridden by Zac Purton, was having his first start since slamming subsequent Royal Ascot runner-up Satono Reve in the Group 1 Chairman's Sprint Prize back in April but brushed off the layoff with the minimum of fuss at Sha Tin.
Always handy from the start having broken from stall four, 1/20 favourite Ka Ying Rising settled in second before Purton asked him to quicken entering the final furlong and a half.
His response was immediate and the six-furlong contest was over in a flash, Ka Ying Rising coming two and a quarter lengths clear of runner-up Lucky Swaynesse, himself a multiple Group-race winner in Hong Kong.
Hayes told the Hong Kong Jockey Club: “I’m much more relieved now and you never like to have an odds-on shot get beat, but he never gave us much to worry about once he got into the straight.
“Zac said it was one of his better efforts because with his big weight, there was a lot of pressure between the 600 metre and 400. I always say he never changes legs as he’s never under pressure, but he actually had to quicken a little bit to stay with the leader and he changed legs, so that was fabulous.
“Zac can be negative but he was very positive. We were saying privately that we thought he was better than last year and I think that showed in the time he ran, the way he did it and the weight he carried.
“He’s always physically been a backwards looking horse, but now I think he looks the complete sprinter and he’s the best I’ve had.”
Ka Ying Rising has The Everest Stakes at Randwick on October 18 on his agenda and will now go into quarantine prior to his journey to Australia.
Hayes said: “He goes into quarantine tonight after a nice cold bath this afternoon. He’ll have an easy week in quarantine next week and then he will be doing work consistently the week after and then arrive in Canterbury (Sydney) two weeks from today.
“He will have two weeks in absolute quarantine training on the course proper and then will come out of quarantine and have a dress rehearsal, probably at Randwick, about 11 days before the big-race.
“I didn’t want to go to six months between runs, first time up in an Everest, but now I know we’ve got him there, we can just maintain him and he can hold form for a long-time this horse, he’s a champion.
“We can just manage him working on his own working over the next six weeks.”
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