Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak in the summer of 1941 is still talked about. Not because baseball fans have long memories – though they do – but because the number itself took on a life of its own. Author Richard Ben Cramer wrote that it gave America "something apart from woe and war to talk about – a summer craze." The world was on the edge of catastrophe. People needed somewhere else to look.
Seems the world hasn't changed much.
Ka Ying Rising passed Silent Witness at his last start in the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup, moving to 18 wins without defeat since two early-career stumbles. Hong Kong's greatest sprinter had a new benchmark to his name, the front page of this newspaper – twice, before and after the race – and a record that deserved a wider audience than it got.
CNN didn't come. Neither did the BBC, nor the New York Times. You could argue the world had other things on its mind. Fair enough. But Silent Witness once earned an essay in Time Magazine – Zoher Abdoolcarim's elegant piece, ‘The Measure of a Horse’. That wasn't just recognition. It was legitimacy. It told the world that what was happening in Hong Kong mattered.
Ka Ying Rising's record was celebrated at Sha Tin with an atmosphere reminiscent of a football match but, more broadly, the moment passed more quietly than it deserved.
The Jockey Club has invested heavily in the Conghua training centre near Guangzhou, and the horse's remarkable consistency – his freshness of body and mind – is the story behind the story. That's not just good horsemanship. It's a working example of Hong Kong racing's place within the Greater Bay Area vision, and it deserves to be told to an audience beyond these pages.
That, though, is yesterday's story.
When Black Caviar's unbeaten streak grew into double figures, trainer Peter Moody spoke of feeling "an obligation" toward her – not just affection. He wasn't training a racehorse anymore. He was protecting something. Chris Waller understood the same weight with Winx, standing calm in the eye of a storm that grew louder with every start. Hugh Bowman, who rode Winx in 31 of her 33 consecutive victories, eventually described his role with a laugh: "She could almost do it without me – but somebody's got to ride her, so I guess I'll have to do it."
Ka Ying Rising's trainer David Hayes and jockey Zac Purton are approaching that same threshold.
It's a pity that Fast Network was denied his Dubai trip for the Al Quoz Sprint. An overseas success would have done for Ka Ying Rising what Cape of Good Hope's Group 1 wins in Australia and England did for Silent Witness – silenced the noise, validated the form and given the world a reason to pay attention. The murmurs about the quality of his opposition will grow. They always do. It happened to Black Caviar. It happened to Winx. It is simply what happens when a champion runs out of rivals willing to turn up.
The G2 Sprint Cup on April 6 and the G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize on April 26 await. The odds suggest both will pass without incident. And then in October – an attempt at a second ascent of The Everest. That could be win number 22, in Sydney, on a stage he has already conquered.
Ka Ying Rising no longer has Silent Witness ahead of him – that chapter is closed now. There is no next name on the list. No ceiling. No predecessor left to pass.
From here, the streak doesn't need a context. It is the context. The streak is the story.
