Top sprinter Ka Ying Rising gets high five from Zac Purton

Zac Purton marveled at Ka Ying Rising’s improving maturity as the world’s highest-rated sprinter headlined a day in which the eight-time champion jockey dominated on the Sha Tin turf.

Purton wasted no time asserting his dominance at the top of this season’s jockeys’ championship thanks to five winners at the first meeting of the season, but it was Ka Ying Rising’s success in the Class 1 Chief Executive’s Cup (1,200 meters) that stole the show.

While Ka Ying Rising’s starting price of 1.05 suggested that victory was merely a formality on his seasonal reappearance, it was the progression in his pre-race manners and physical presence that left Purton especially impressed after the two-and-a-quarter-length success.

“He was very good,” Purton told The Standard. “He was a lot more relaxed in the parade ring and while he still has that fast walk, it’s not as bad as before, where he really wanted to march over the top of the handlers.

“I was impressed with the way he looked in the yard. He looks like a completely different horse now and he raced that way too. His attitude shows us that he’s matured and everything he’s done in the mornings is heading the right way.”

The David Hayes-trained sprinter attracted plenty of attention from racegoers in the parade ring before he proceeded to gallop his rivals into submission on the rain-affected surface.

While he may have beaten the same group of sprinters that he had at his mercy last season, Purton acknowledged that Ka Ying Rising had to enter unknown territory in yesterday’s 1,200m contest.

Ka Ying Rising tracked the leader, Bottomuptogether, in the early stages as the Frankie Lor Fu-chuen-trained gelding took the field along at a red-hot tempo. Bottomuptogether recorded a second section time – from the 800m to the 400m marker – of 21.33 seconds, which is quicker than Ka Ying Rising has ever had to cover that same distance in his 16-race career.

“With the leader running along the way he did, I had him keeping track of him a little bit,” Purton said. “He’s not used to chasing something off the bit so that’s why he changed his legs – he knew he needed to.

“Hopefully he’s learned something from that and he can continue to do that going forward.”

Ka Ying Rising’s next race will be in Australia on October 18 when he bids to become the first Hong Kong-trained winner of the world’s richest race on turf, the G1 The Everest (1,200m).

Purton also returned to the winners’ enclosure yesterday after victories aboard Perfect Peach, Super Strong Kid, Groovy Feeling and Bulb General, who swept to an impressive win in the penultimate contest of the day, a Class 3 over 1,200m.

“He was impressive,” Purton said of the Jamie Richards-trained four-year-old. “He hasn’t shown too much early gate speed but he jumped out and really wanted to get among it today. He put himself in the right spot, had the pace to suit, rounded them up and did it in good fashion.”