The world’s highest-rated sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, will give Hong Kong racing fans an early-season treat when he returns to the track on the opening day of the campaign on Sunday at Sha Tin. But, after this weekend’s Class 1 HKSAR Chief Executives’ Cup (1,200 meters), focus will turn from Sha Tin to Sydney, as he bids to conquer the world’s richest race on turf, the Group 1 The Everest (1,200m), on October 18.
The David Hayes-trained superstar will head into quarantine after Sunday’s race in preparation for the A$20 million (HK$101.75 million) contest, where he will take on Australia’s top sprinters at Randwick Racecourse.
While Ka Ying Rising will look to make history in Australia next month, one of Hong Kong racing’s other superstars, Voyage Bubble, could potentially attempt to become the first two-time winner of the Triple Crown. Voyage Bubble triumphed in last season’s G1 Stewards’ Cup (1,600m), G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2,000m) and G1 Champions & Chater Cup (2,400m) and his trainer, Ricky Yiu Poon-fai, has hinted that he could go down the same route this term.
Plenty of eyes will be on the condition of Hong Kong’s globetrotting hero Romantic Warrior, who was diagnosed with a fetlock injury in May and underwent surgery following his grueling Middle East campaign last season.
While his trainer, Danny Shum Chap-shing, hasn’t exactly been forthcoming about his stable star’s progress as he struggles with his own recent knee replacement, Romantic Warrior has begun taking steps in the right direction with light work at Sha Tin.
The seven-year-old has been trotting and swimming since the beginning of August and could return in time for December’s G1 Hong Kong Cup (2,000m), where he will be looking to win the race for a record fourth time.
In terms of comebacks, Vincent Ho Chak-yiu will be hoping to return with a bang, having been on the sidelines since February 9. Hong Kong’s homegrown star, who suffered a brain injury on top of neck fractures in a brutal race fall at Sha Tin, will return to race-riding this Sunday after a long road to recovery. A season without injury could see him bag a fifth Tony Cruz Award, given to the leading homegrown rider.
Mark Newnham, Pierre Ng Pangchi, David Eustace and Cody Mo Wai-kit have all hit the ground running in Hong Kong in the past three years and it will be fascinating to see how Brett Crawford fares in his maiden campaign.
The trainer, who won over 1,400 races in South Africa, will start his season with 25 horses, most of which have been transferred from other stables or the yard of the retired Benno Yung Tin-pang. Newnham and Eustace are the most recent expatriate trainers to line up here and they collected 31 and 36 wins in their maiden campaigns, respectively. Both emphasized the need to be patient.
This campaign is all the more intriguing for Crawford considering he has top Australian trainer James Cummings at his heels. Cummings, who hails from one of Australia’s most successful racing dynasties of all, is bound to attract plenty of early support from owners, so Crawford’s moment as the ‘new golden boy’ might only last briefly.
Racing at the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s training facility in the mainland’s Conghua Racecourse is set to begin in October 2026. With the start date getting ever closer, it will become clearer over the season just how exactly that will look for everyone involved.
While one exhibition meeting was held there in 2019, the start of racing there next year in front of bigger crowds, who will be able to watch from a new grandstand, could see a change in dynamic, schedule and overall rhythm of Hong Kong racing.
Also, with top-class horses like Ka Ying Rising and Voyage Bubble being sent there in between some of the big assignments last year, it will be interesting to see which trainers are utilizing the added training tool this season and how they are benefitting from Conghua.
HKJC CEO Winfried EngelbrechtBresges told local media to “mark down October 2026 in your calendar” as he confirmed plans were on track. Racing at Conghua is part of the Club’s long-term strategy to link the its three racecourses together with regular fixtures and establish an equine industry across the Greater Bay Area.
He may have surpassed Douglas Whyte and set a new Hong Kong record for the most races won by a jockey last season, but in true Zac Purton style, the next big landmark does not seem far away.
Purton smashed Whyte’s record of 1,814 wins and finished up last season with an eighth jockeys’ championship on 1,878 wins thanks to another dominant campaign in the saddle.
He will have his eyes on collecting the remaining 122 to take him to 2,000 total victories in the jurisdiction, and it looks like he should have no problem ticking that off by the end of the season, barring injury.
While the jockeys’ premiership looks like it could be one-way traffic once again, the trainers’ championship is far more competitive, despite John Size winning his 13th title last season. He could have the 2023-24 champion, Francis Lui Kin-wai, mounting a bold challenge to him, while there could be some movers and shakers among the newer additions to the training roster.
