The captivated faces of children hugging the outside rail said it all as Ka Ying Rising effortlessly glided past to win a 1,000-meter barrier trial at Sha Tin — the highlight of the Jockey Club's pre-season carnival yesterday.
Children are rarely allowed onto the racecourse, but Sunday's pre-season carnival was one of the rare exceptions, and hundreds lined the rail after a day of family-friendly racing education.
The superstar sprinter's cameo sent them home buzzing.
Ka Ying Rising, the winner of 21 straight races and holder of two Sha Tin course record times, was simply doing what he does — but for the children watching, and for the media who turned out in force, it was a rare chance to see a champion up close.
The horse's next assignment is the Chief Executive's Cup, upgraded this year to a Group 3, at the Season Opening meeting this Sunday, September 6, before he heads to Sydney to defend his crown in The Everest in October. It's a title defense that will pit Hong Kong's fastest horse against the best sprinters in Australia once again.
Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges said watching a champion gallop at close range was central to what the carnival is about.
"For me, seeing horses that close, I never forget when my father took me as a boy. It's something that stays with you," Engelbrecht-Bresges said. "You see the beauty, you see the elegance. It's the most beautiful animal in the world — the way it moves with such ease. Everything is like a fine-tuned Formula One machine."
He said days like this build the next generation of fans fascinated by a sport that connects well beyond the betting.
"When you hear the breathing, when you hear the noise — for people who want to become racing fans, this is it," he said. "That's why we hold the trials and bring children in. This is what we have to instill — the real racing fandom — and I think we're on a very good path."
The carnival's family program also included the annual jockeys' sprint, run as a relay up the Sha Tin straight — riders on foot rather than horseback — with Lyle Hewitson and Derek Leung Ka-chun narrowly holding off Karis Teetan and Harry Bentley. It was a timely tune-up for Bentley, who returns to raceday duties at Sunday's Season Opening meeting after injury.
Engelbrecht-Bresges said the club was also investing in giving young racegoers hands-on access to horses through Pony World, the newly launched attraction on the Penfold Park infield.
"It's not just pony riding, it's a real educational experience," he said. "We explain horses, we explain everything to do with horses, to build knowledge, and the feedback has been extremely good. Every time we open bookings, it's booked out within a very short period."
He wants to go further, eventually opening the infield to racegoers on race days themselves once conditions allow.
"I'd like to eventually integrate this into the race-day experience, so people can go into the infield," Engelbrecht-Bresges said. "We still have some work to do, and we want to launch it once the weather is a little more accommodating. But it will be a great experience."
With the track itself in peak condition after off-season renovation work to the back straight, Engelbrecht-Bresges said the carnival was the perfect entree to the 2026/27 season.
For now, though, it was the simplest sight — a champion sprinter breezing past a fence-line of wide-eyed children — that carried the day.
