Zac Purton believes Ka Ying Rising has taken another crucial step forward this morning (Tuesday, 9 December) in his preparation for Sunday\u2019s (14 December) HK$28 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) at Sha Tin.<\/p>
Successful in his past 15 races, Ka Ying Rising is aiming to join Golden Sixty by securing a 16th consecutive win, one shy of Silent Witness\u2019 all-time Hong Kong record of 17. Emerging at sunrise, Ka Ying Rising \u2013 under the hands of Purton \u2013 trotted a few laps in the sand ring before making his way to the main dirt course.<\/p>
In front of a scrum of local and international media huddled at the trainers\u2019 stand, Ka Ying Rising was his usual unproblematic self, untested by Purton; he coasted along in a manner that highlighted the 2024\/25 Hong Kong Horse of the Year\u2019s readiness.\u00a0<\/p>
\u201cHe was a lot more relaxed this morning. He came out into the trotting ring and, for once in a long time, he actually did trot around there. Normally, you can\u2019t get him to trot, he wants to hack around and play up a little bit, but he went around there nicely and did the same thing on the track,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
\u201cHe was a little bit aggressive in his grass gallop the other week, but now that he\u2019s had the blow-out, he\u2019s chilled and he\u2019s a different horse this week, which is good.\u201d<\/p>
The Shamexpress gelding, who also captured last season\u2019s three-race HK$5 million Hong Kong Speed Series bonus as part of his undefeated campaign, clocked 23.2s for 400m.\u00a0<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”10481″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Australian Racing Hall of Famer Purton has the most wins for a jockey in Hong Kong racing history (1,923), and the 42-year-old has been associated with some of its greatest champions before Ka Ying Rising, including juggernaut miler Beauty Generation.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019ve been very lucky and to think that the best one (Ka Ying Rising) of the lot has come along now. I certainly appreciate it, and he\u2019s such a lovely horse to work with as well, which makes it even more enjoyable. You\u2019ve got to pinch yourself, really,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
\u201cBeauty Generation was hard to handle. He knew he was big; he knew he was strong, and he was aggressive. He injured his mafoos, I think that tells you what type of horse he was, but he put that aggression into his racing, which is what I liked about him.\u201d<\/p>
The bull-headed Beauty Generation regularly took swipes at his mafoo and work rider, who were on guard at all times, as opposed to Ka Ying Rising, who has sometimes been nervous pre-race, but generally holds his composure until it\u2019s time for competition.<\/p>
Purton said: \u201cHe\u2019s just a gem, this guy. It\u2019s just another race and we\u2019re trying to win it, whatever happens beyond that happens. He\u2019s built up a good record and hopefully we can keep it that way.\u201d<\/p>
Ka Ying Rising broke from barrier 11 in last year\u2019s LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint, while recently he stepped from gate 10 when winning the HK$5.35 million G2 BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint (1200m) on 23 November by close to three lengths.<\/p>
\u201cIt depends what the other speed horses around me draw. I\u2019d like to draw lower than higher. He hasn\u2019t had the best run with barriers in some of these races, so he\u2019s due to get a nice good one,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”10480″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Zac Purton believes Ka Ying Rising has taken another crucial step forward this morning (Tuesday, 9 December) in his preparation for Sunday\u2019s (14 December) HK$28 million G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) at Sha Tin.Successful in his past 15 races, Ka Ying Rising is aiming to join Golden Sixty by securing… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":10482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"2normal","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10478"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10478"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10496,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10478\/revisions\/10496"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-hkir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}