Ka Ying Rising Smashes Sha Tin Record Again

Barrier One and Gate to Wire

Ka Ying Rising, unbeaten winner of his last 21 starts, broke from barrier one and led gate-to-wire under Zac Purton, dictating the pace throughout the Gr.3 HKSAR Chief Executive's Cup (Handicap) (1200m) at Sha Tin on 6 September 2026. Never seriously challenged by his 20lb-conceding rivals, he cruised clear through the straight as Purton eased his effort without fully riding him out inside the final 100 metres, yet the pair still stopped the clock in a track-record 1:06.11.

The Gr.3 HKSAR Chief Executive's Cup (Handicap) (1200m) carried total prize money of HK$4,200,000 (US$535,626) after its promotion to Group Three status for the 2026/27 season opener. The winning time broke Ka Ying Rising's own Sha Tin 1200m record, set in April 2026, by close to a second.

Five Hours Under the Vet

The margin told only part of the story. Copartner Prance, under M L Yeung, ran on gamely from stall five to hold second, unable to lay a serious challenge on the leader at any stage. Magic Control, ridden by Matthew Chadwick, filled third a further length and a half adrift, with Tomodachi Kokoroe of the same Hayes stable close up in fourth having also been beaten a length and a half. Lucky With You and Patch Of Stars completed the field, both unable to sustain a serious challenge to the placegetters ahead of them.

"He spent five or six hours under veterinary attention on Tuesday (September 1) to have the bruising in his hind leg checked out," Hayes said. "He was having CT scans and Doppler scans under sedation. That would throw most horses off their routine, but he just takes everything in his stride – and then comes out and breaks the track record again."

The injury scare had threatened to derail the build-up entirely, yet Hayes had cleared his stable star to run before raceday. That the gelding could absorb a sedated scan mid-week and still smash his own record days later spoke to a temperament as much as talent, a point Hayes returned to when comparing this performance with the horse's preparation twelve months earlier.

Ka Ying Rising's Everest Return

"Last year we nursed him and he won brilliantly. That was a better win today and he had more of a hit out," Hayes said. "We just had him far too fresh arriving in Sydney. I don't like to change much when they win like that, so we'll just continue with a little more base work, and that's holding him in better stead for when he arrives mentally. It's more about mentality with him; that he's not too fresh."

The distinction matters because Ka Ying Rising's assignment does not end at Sha Tin. He is already the reigning Everest winner, having become the first overseas-trained horse to take the world's richest turf sprint at Royal Randwick in 2025, and he returns there to defend the title on 17 October 2026. A tighter, more taxing prep run in Hong Kong, on Hayes's own account, is designed expressly to have the gelding arrive in Sydney with sharper focus rather than raw freshness.

Purton, who has partnered the gelding through the bulk of his unbeaten run, described a horse still building rather than one already at its ceiling. "We've both said that he's a bigger, stronger horse and that didn't mean he came back fat," Purton said. "He came back physically more developed and stronger and he's feeling great. He hasn't raced since April, so any amount of racing is going to improve him."

He was careful not to overstate the scope of that improvement. "I'm not going to stand there and say he's going to improve lengths off that – and I said before, he doesn't need to – but I'm sure he's going to pull up better for the run," Purton said. The remark framed Sunday's runaway score as a fitness exercise dressed up as a title defence, rather than the finished product ahead of an Everest defence.

A Push for the Blow

Purton's handling of the closing stages carried its own message. Rather than nursing the gelding home unchallenged, he asked a question inside the final furlong purely to extract a workout. "He's got improvement, there's no doubt about that, so that's why I gave him a bit of a push to give him that blow," Purton said. "We've got to try to bring him on for The Everest, but he handled himself really well and changed his leg; that's what I liked."

Ka Ying Rising entered quarantine less than two hours after the race in preparation for the flight to Australia, underlining how tightly the Hong Kong season opener and the Everest campaign are now run together as a single continuous project rather than separate engagements.

Sunday's meeting doubled as a ceremonial reopening of the Hong Kong season, with an eye-dotting and gong-striking ceremony in the Parade Ring and the first live performance of the Hong Kong Jockey Club's new anthem, "Go Go Go", performed by ambassador Aaron Kwok. But it was the Chief Executive's Cup itself, elevated to Group Three status for the occasion, that carried the day's real weight.

A Kicked Feed Bin, No Cost

Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior were named joint Hong Kong Horse of the Year for 2025/26, but Romantic Warrior has since retired, leaving this gelding to carry Hong Kong's flag alone into a new season and into a fresh Everest defence. A win recorded with the rider visibly not fully riding him out raises the question of how much more there is left to find — and Hayes and Purton both suggested, in their own words, that there is still room.

Beaten conditions were not it either. Copartner Prance and Magic Control were competitive placegetters. Neither runner's connections were quoted afterward.

The scares of the past fortnight — the kicked feed bin, the bruised hind foot, the sedated scans — have not cost Ka Ying Rising conditioning or sharpness. Hayes's own description of a "better win" than the 2025 nursed victory suggests the yard is treating the Everest defence, not Sunday's runaway score, as the true measure of this preparation.

For Hong Kong racing, the immediate afternoon carried its own texture beyond the streak: a Group Three upgrade, a record purse, and a ceremonial reopening built almost entirely around one horse's presence on the card. The Everest defence now stands as the measure by which this run of 21 consecutive wins will ultimately be judged, not the record time set in front of a home crowd already primed to celebrate it.

The scans, the sedation, and the bruised hind foot never threatened the outcome; what they tested was whether Ka Ying Rising could absorb disruption and still sharpen, not merely win. Hayes and Purton both answered in the horse's favour, Hayes calling it a better win than 2025 and Purton describing a bigger, stronger horse feeling great. The record now reads 22 wins from 24 starts, but the number that matters next arrives at Royal Randwick on 17 October 2026.

Race Info

HK season opener: 09:30 GST (13:30 HKT) | Group Three Handicap | NA | Thoroughbred | Turf | 1200m | HK$4,200,000 (US$535,626) | Rail Position: NA | Track Condition: Good | Safety Limit: NA | Track Record: Ka Ying Rising, 1:06.11, 6 September 2026 | Prize Breakdown: NA

Result

HK season opener: 1 Ka Ying Rising (T: David Hayes / J: Zac Purton) | 2 Copartner Prance (T: K W Lui / J: M L Yeung) | 3 Magic Control (T: W K Mo / J: Matthew Chadwick)