Zac Purton believes Ka Ying Rising is stronger and more mature as the world\u2019s highest-rated sprinter bids for a 13th consecutive win when he resumes in the HK$3.72 million Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (7 September).<\/p>
Attempting to become the first horse to win the opening-day feature twice, Ka Ying Rising will use the HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup as a launch pad to the AU$20 million (approx. HK$100.34 million) G1 The Everest (1200m) at Royal Randwick on 18 October.<\/p>
Hong Kong\u2019s reigning Horse Of The Year will carry 135lb \u2013 the same impost he shouldered last season when he burst to a weight-carrying record in the race \u2013 against Lucky Sweynesse (126lb), Lucky With You (116lb) and Beauty Waves, Victor The Winner, Copartner Prance, Raging Blizzard, Magic Control, Bottomuptogether, Divano, Gorgeous Win and Harmony N Blessed, who have all been assigned 115lb.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to seeing how he comes back because I believe he\u2019s a bit stronger, he\u2019s a bit bigger, he\u2019s a bit more mature and I\u2019m just hoping he can take another step \u2013 he doesn\u2019t need to, but if he does, that puts him in a pretty elite category,\u201d eight-time Hong Kong champion jockey Purton said.<\/p>
\u201cObviously, it\u2019s not ideal that he has to carry the grandstand against good horses \u2013 and they are good horses \u2013 and give 20 pounds of weight to most of them and unfortunately there are seven established leaders in the race, so there\u2019s going to be a lot of pressure.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7247″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Sha Tin\u2019s 1200m record-holder with a gallop of 1m 07.20s to win the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup in January, Ka Ying Rising has drawn barrier four on Sunday.<\/p>
\u201cI\u2019m thankful that we have a good gate and I have horses inside me that like to lead, so we\u2019ll wait to see how we begin and how they begin and assess it from there. It\u2019s not ideal to carry a big weight first up, but we have to start somewhere and have a race before The Everest,\u201d Purton said.<\/p>
\u201cI want a clean-run race and I want a race that\u2019s not stop-start and he can just get into a rhythm. With seven leaders in the race, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a slowly-run race and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be a stop-start race.<\/p>
\u201cIf horses on the outside want to go forward, that will put more speed into the race and that means the first half of the race will take care of itself and he\u2019s then just got to breeze around the last half. He\u2019s been showing off speed in his trials this season, so they\u2019re going to have to go pretty quick if they\u2019re going to beat him into that first corner.\u201d<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7248″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes” onclick=”link_image”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Lucky Sweynesse (2022) and Victor The Winner (2023) have both won the HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup and Derek Leung hopes Lucky Sweynesse will acquit himself well this weekend ahead of a possible tilt at the G1 Sprinters Stakes (1200m) at Nakayama Racecourse, Japan, on 28 September.<\/p>
\u201cHe\u2019s (Lucky Sweynesse) a big horse, so he needs a run to keep his fitness,\u201d Leung said. \u201cLast time in his first trial, he was a bit fat but after I put him under some pressure, he had a good blow and he recovered well.<\/p>
\u201cHopefully, being a bit fresh in his first start will be good for him and the main aim is Japan. In his first race he doesn\u2019t have to carry the top weight, so it\u2019s a good starting point for him and the timing is good to head to Japan and give it a try.\u201d<\/p>
Sunday\u2019s (7 September) season-opening meeting at Sha Tin starts with the Class 5 Grassy Hill Handicap (1200m) at 1pm.<\/p>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”7246″ 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 is stronger and more mature as the world\u2019s highest-rated sprinter bids for a 13th consecutive win when he resumes in the HK$3.72 million Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executive\u2019s Cup Handicap (1200m) at Sha Tin on Sunday (7 September).Attempting to become the first horse to win… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":7249,"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\/7244"}],"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=7244"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7252,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7244\/revisions\/7252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/campaigns.hkjc.com\/racing-event-hub-season-opening\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}