Hong Kong racing's historic season ended with a historic verdict as Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior were named joint Horses of the Year at a gala ceremony at the Rosewood Hong Kong in Kowloon on Friday night — the first shared award in the honor's history.
The judging panel, split between two flawless campaigns, could not separate the world's No. 1-ranked sprinter — unbeaten in 20 races after a perfect eight-for-eight season crowned by victory in the world's richest turf race — and the Triple Crown winner whose six-for-six return from surgery pushed his earnings to a world-record HK$288.7 million.
Ka Ying Rising stretched his winning streak to 20 – shattering Silent Witness's long-standing Hong Kong record of 17 straight – and became the first overseas-trained horse to win the A$20 million (about HK$100 million) Everest at Randwick in Sydney, one of five Group 1 victories in a season worth HK$92.6 million in prize money.
The five-year-old closed the season with track records in each of his final three starts – the Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup (1m 19.36s), The Sprint Cup (1m 07.12s) and the Chairman's Sprint Prize (1m 07.10s) – and sits atop the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings on a mark of 131.
Regular rider Zac Purton, who collected a ninth champion jockey title after reaching 2,000 career Hong Kong wins during the season, won by a combined 23.25 lengths across Ka Ying Rising's eight starts – an average of nearly three lengths per race in the deepest sprinting jurisdiction in the world.
Ka Ying Rising becomes the 10th horse to win consecutive Horse of the Year titles, joining a list that includes Silent Witness, Beauty Generation and three-time winner Golden Sixty, and he denied Romantic Warrior - who put together what might have been the greatest season ever by a horse that did not take the top honor.
Romantic Warrior, the 2023-24 Horse of the Year, went six-for-six in a stunning return from fetlock surgery, sweeping the Triple Crown – only the third horse in Hong Kong history to do so, after River Verdon and Voyage Bubble – and winning the city's two richest races, the Longines Hong Kong Cup and the FWD QEII Cup, both for an unprecedented fourth time.
The Danny Shum Chap-shing-trained eight-year-old, ridden in all six wins by James McDonald, extended his world-record career earnings to HK$288.7 million and swept the divisional awards, taking Champion Miler, Champion Middle-Distance Horse and Champion Stayer.
BMW Hong Kong Derby winner Invincible Ibis was a dual winner on the night, named Champion Four-Year-Old and Most Improved Horse after his spectacular victory in the BMW Hong Kong Derby for trainer Mark Newnham and jockey Hugh Bowman.
Ka Ying Rising was also named Champion Sprinter for the third straight year, while the Francis Lui-trained Hot Delight took Champion Griffin honors for owner Peter Law Kin Sang, and Jerry Chau collected the Tony Cruz Award as the season's top homegrown rider.
One title remains undecided: the trainers' premiership goes down to the final two meetings — Sunday at Sha Tin and Wednesday's season finale at Happy Valley — with Caspar Fownes all but assured of the championship on 69 wins, six clear of Danny Shum (63), with Mark Newnham (60) a further three back and 20 races left.
Hong Kong's twin titans carried the city's flag through a season in which its 12 Group 1 races offered a record HK$273 million, and the pair will return next season with an identical race programme ahead of them.
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