Hong Kong has been able to punch above its weight and produce a number of global superstars in recent years, and on Sunday at Sha Tin, fans will be treated to witnessing two “horses of a generation” in a single afternoon.
Four Group 1 contests headline a blockbuster day at the Hong Kong International Races, but all eyes at a jam-packed Sha Tin will be on two horses: the world’s highest-rated sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, in the Hong Kong Sprint and Danny Shum Chap-shing’s globetrotting champion Romantic Warrior in the Hong Kong Cup.
For Ka Ying Rising, it’s all about finesse, flair and his sublime speed. The David Hayes-trained gelding has taken the global sprinting ranks by storm and bids to record a 16th consecutive win in the HK$28 million Hong Kong Sprint, a race he won as the 1.1 favorite 12 months ago.
His sharp gate speed and ability to maintain such a blistering pace all the way to the winning post has made him untouchable against Hong Kong’s strong crop of sprinters. It was also too much for Australia’s best speedsters to handle in The Everest in October, when Ka Ying Rising dominated in the world’s richest race on turf.
On Sunday, the five-year-old will attempt to collect his sixth Group 1 win when he jumps from the inside gate, 12 months after his first top-level success.
“It was probably his career-best performance last start,” Purton said of his Jockey Club Sprint success last month. “He got into a lovely rhythm and he put them away nicely.
“He’s galloped extremely well since his last start and we’re really looking forward to Sunday. Everything has gone to plan.”
For all of Ka Ying Rising’s ability to dominate with great panache, there is Romantic Warrior’s grit and dogged determination that has made him such a force to be reckoned with all over the world.
Shum’s star has collected 10 Group 1 wins, reigned supreme in four different countries and even came within a neck of the world’s top dirt horse, Forever Young in a Group 1 Saudi Cup for the ages in February.
In Sunday’s Hong Kong Cup, Romantic Warrior, who underwent surgery at the end of May to insert a screw into an injured fetlock, will look to become the first horse to win at four Hong Kong International Races - Golden Sixty and Good Ba Baba have also won at three.
“He’s had a really smooth build up,” McDonald told The Standard. “What he’s achieved is pretty remarkable and he’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse.
“He’s in rare air already and we can’t wait for Sunday.”
The seven-year-old returned from injury with an emphatic Jockey Club Cup win over 2,000m when he blew apart last year’s Triple Crown hero, Voyage Bubble, last month.
“I thought it suited him down to the ground,” McDonald said. “He hadn’t raced for so long, so a slowly-run race was always going to be beneficial to us, but his turn of foot was still incredible.”
Romantic Warrior will face six rivals on Sunday, with the action getting underway at Sha Tin at 12:25 HKT.
