It was business as usual for Ka Ying Rising at Sha Tin this evening (Saturday, 30 August). Hong Kong\u2019s Horse of the Year (2024\/25) strode confidently through another eye-catching barrier trial ahead of his highly anticipated return to racing next weekend (Sunday, 7 September) at the 2025\/26 Season Opener.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
A winner of his past 12 consecutive races, headlined by four at Group 1 level, David Hayes\u2019 record-breaking sprinter clocked an unforced 56.45s over 1000m on turf by two lengths in first place as he prepares to defend his HK$3.72 million Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup Handicap (1200m) crown at Sha Tin on Sunday week.<\/p>\r\n
Two-time Hong Kong Champion Trainer (1997\/98 & 1998\/99) Hayes said: \u201cPleasure to watch. He\u2019s so fluent, his action is perfect and, the most important thing, he\u2019s mentally more mature this year.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cLast year if you watch his trials, he was jumpy and out of his skin a bit \u2013 too fresh. This year he\u2019s walking around how you want them to walk around.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Now a five-year-old, Ka Ying Rising will enter quarantine in Hong Kong for a fortnight straight after his first-up run in the HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup as he prepares to fly to Sydney, Australia for his shot at the AU$20 million (approx. HK$100.34 million) G1 The Everest (1200m) at Royal Randwick.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column]
Ka Ying Rising coasts through his workout with Zac Purton.<\/p>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
\u201cTo run 56s with his eyes shut is pretty impressive. He\u2019s a more mature horse now, so he\u2019s always going to be heavier (body weight) than last year,\u201d Hayes said. \u201cHe\u2019ll come down with this trial, but I want a bit of wriggle room for travelling and, I think by Everest time we should have him at around 1,150 (pounds) \u2013 which is about 15 pounds heavier than last year.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Zac Purton was aboard Ka Ying Rising as he crossed the line to the sound of a light cheer from the crowd in attendance at today\u2019s Owners Carnival. Along with the mantle as Hong Kong Horse of the Year last season, freakish talent Ka Ying Rising was also acclaimed Hong Kong Champion Sprinter (2024\/25) and Hong Kong Champion Four-Year-Old (2024\/25).<\/p>\r\n
\u201cHe (Zac) was very happy. He was thrilled with his manners behind the gates. He changed legs, which is the only criticism Zac has of him, he never changes legs. But when you don\u2019t get under pressure, you don\u2019t have to change legs. You change legs when you\u2019re under pressure. Today, he thinks he changed legs \u2013 from Zac\u2019s point of view,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\r\n
Prior to this evening\u2019s trial session, James Orman and Derek Leung were celebrated as Hong Kong\u2019s fastest on foot. The two riders landed the 2025\/26 Jockeys\u2019 Sprint in a bunched finish ahead of Brenton Avdulla and Ellis Wong (second), while Hugh Bowman and Jerry Chau were close-up in third position.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6864″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Lyle Hewitson excited to return in search of 150-win milestone<\/strong><\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6865″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\r\n Meanwhile, Lyle Hewitson is ready to return to competition next Sunday at Sha Tin after recovering from injuries sustained in a race fall last June at Happy Valley, which cut his 2024\/25 campaign short.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Hewitson, 27, has been permanently based in Hong Kong since the start of the 2021\/22 season. He posted 27 wins that term and collected a career-high 50 successes in 2022\/23. Last campaign\u2019s 29 victories lifted the South African rider to 149 career wins in Hong Kong.<\/p>\r\n Hewitson attributes his swift recovery to the offseason break: \u201cI\u2019ve done a lot of work and used the machines where I could to help. I think it\u2019s all paid off in the end because when I went for my X-rays it all looked really good. They were predicting 10 weeks and it turned out to be eight weeks to the day that I was cleared to return to trackwork.<\/p>\r\n \u201cI did everything from day one. Lots of physio work and then our physio here, Chris, he set me up when I got back to South Africa (in the offseason) with the practice he used to work at. I went there every three days and towards the last two weeks while I was still back home it was every three days doing physio and in between also doing Pilates.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”6863″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It was business as usual for Ka Ying Rising at Sha Tin this evening (Saturday, 30 August). Hong Kong\u2019s Horse of the Year (2024\/25) strode confidently through another eye-catching barrier trial ahead of his highly anticipated return to racing next weekend (Sunday, 7 September) at the 2025\/26 Season Opener. A winner… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":6866,"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-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6860"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6860"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7069,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6860\/revisions\/7069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}