In Hong Kong – Zac Purton may be the all-conquering king of Hong Kong racing but he admits there is one racing star who knows how to win Sha Tin’s biggest sprints better than him.
That is Kiwi world champion sprinter Ka Ying Rising, who Purton partners in today’s HK$24 million ($5.2m) Chairman’s Sprint Prize on the FWD Champions Day programme.
The former New Zealand galloper will be at near-unbackable odds to win the Group 1 and make it 20 straight victories, all but two of those with Purton aboard.
Purton is adamant Ka Ying Rising is better in 2026 than when he won the A$20m ($24.3m) Everest in Sydney last October, a scary thought for those who take him on today or are considering doing so in the next 12 months.
“That trip to Sydney made him, he went down there a boy and came back a man,” Purton told the Herald.
So much so that while Purton is the most successful jockey in Hong Kong racing, he said he is almost stealing his riding percentage when he rides the big 5-year-old.
“He actually knows what to do here [Sha Tin] over 1200m,” Purton said matter-of-factly.
“He is a very intelligent horse so when we come around the bend and straighten up you can feel him swell up underneath you and get ready.
“Then he knows about the 300m to give a kick and, to be honest, my job lately is to control him and ease him down to make it easier on himself after that.”
So how does it feel when the world’s officially best sprinter decides it is time for him to show off?
“It feels amazing, it is so much fun,” smiled Purton, who is not prone to such emotions when discussing tactics.
Ka Ying Rising meets Japan’s best sprinter Satono Reve today after he smashed him in this race last year and again at the International meeting in December, so anything but a convincing victory at 6.35pm today (NZ time) would stun the racing world.
Regardless of the result, Ka Ying Rising’s season will end today and he will again be set for The Everest in Sydney, which means he may potentially have career earnings of more than $50m this time next year.
While Ka Ying Rising’s victory today looks preordained the other New Zealand superstar on the programme, world champion jockey James McDonald, could have to work a bit harder aboard Romantic Warrior in the HK$30m QEII Cup.
Romantic Warrior is Hong Kong racing’s other hero and is unbeaten in four starts this season, but tonight he meets Masquerade Ball, who is rated as highly as him.
Masquerade Ball lost by a head in a record-time Japan Cup in November and while Japanese horses can be hit and miss in Hong Kong, Masquerade Ball is the real deal.
So much so his jockey Christophe Lemaire, who has an intricate knowledge of Japanese racing, suggested this week Masquerade Ball could develop into one of the best horses to come out of Japan.
Romantic Warrior is still at home though, has the genius of McDonald and perhaps a more dynamic turn of foot than the Japanese and European raiders looking to dethrone him today.
There appear to be far more pieces on the chessboard in today’s other Group 1, the Champion’s Mile, which brings together a United Nations of class milers.
The International Mile winner from last December, Voyage Bubbles, and recent Hong Kong Derby winner Invincible Ibis, who was sold out of the Karaka Ready To Run sale, will take on Royal Ascot Group 1 winner Docklands, flashy Japanese mile specialist Jantar Mantar and last year’s 90-1 winner of this race, Red Lion, in a contest where nothing would surprise.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.