The winning streak – 15 races over 22 months – is reaching record-breaking territory.
No sprinter in Hong Kong or Australia can keep pace with the 5-year-old gelding Ka Ying Rising, who will be a short price to record another victory in Sunday’s Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong.
Ka Ying Rising won the 2024 Hong Kong Sprint, win No. 8 in the streak. A victory on Sunday would equal the 16-race winning streak of the Hong Kong-based Golden Sixty from September 2019 to December 2021, and place Ka Ying Rising one win behind the region’s all-time record holder for consecutive wins in Silent Witness, who was unbeaten in his first 17 starts at Sha Tin from December 2002 to late April 2005.
In his winning streak, Ka Ying Rising has won 14 races at Sha Tin as well as the Group 1 Everest Stakes at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Australia on Oct. 18. The $13.09 million Everest Stakes is the world’s richest sprint.
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The Hong Kong Sprint has a purse of $3.59 million and drew a field of 13. Ka Ying Rising, trained by David Hayes, will be ridden by Zac Purton and starts from the inside post for the first time in his career. Ka Ying Rising started from post 2 in the first win of the streak.
Purton has been aboard for 13 of the 15 consecutive wins, and was aboard Ka Ying Rising for a quarter-mile blowout in 23.20 seconds at Sha Tin on Tuesday.
“He’s just a gem, this guy,” Purton told the press. “It’s just another race and we’re trying to win it, whatever happens beyond that happens. He’s built up a good record and hopefully we can keep it that way.”
Ka Ying Rising was 1-20 when he won his last start in the Group 2 Jockey Club Sprint by an easy 2 3/4 lengths at Sha Tin in Hong Kong on Nov. 23.
The Japanese star sprinter Satono Reve, third in the 2024 Hong Kong Sprint, is rated as a logical rival to Ka Ying Rising. Ryan Moore, the European-based superstar who returned from injury to win a jockey’s competition at Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong on Wednesday, has the mount.
Satono Reve has had mixed form this year.
A winner of 8 of 15 starts, Satono Reve won the Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen at six furlongs at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan in March, Japan’s leading springtime sprint. Satono Reve was second by 2 1/2 lengths to Ka Ying Rising in the Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin in April, and second by a half-length to Lazzat as the 9-5 favorite in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at six furlongs at Royal Ascot in Britain in June.
Satono Reve was later fourth as the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in Japan on Sept. 28, his most recent start.
Hong Kong Mile, Vase
While the Hong Kong Sprint is a lopsided betting race, two other Group 1 races on the program – the $4.62 million Hong Kong Mile and $3.34 million Hong Kong Vase at 1 1/2 miles are excellent betting races, with contenders from Sha Tin and Europe.
The Hong Kong Vase is the first of the four seven-figure stakes on Sunday’s program, which includes the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup at 1 1/4 miles.
The Vase drew 11, including three runners from the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in Paris on Oct. 5 – Sosie and Giavellotto, who were third and fourth, and Los Angeles, who finished last of 17.
Sosie and Giavellotto were 5-2 favorites in early betting for the Hong Kong Vase, with the Irish Group 1 winner Al Riffa at 9-2. Goliath, a Group 1 winner in Britain and Germany in the last 18 months, but 11th of 13 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 1, was rated as a 14-1 outsider.
Both Sosie and Giavellotto have appealing credentials.
Sosie, trained by Andre Fabre, has won three Group 1 races in France since the summer of 2024. Sosie was beaten 5 3/4 lengths by Daryz in the Arc de Triomphe. The Hong Kong Vase is Sosie’s first start away from Europe.
Giavellotto, trained by Marco Botti in Britain, won the 2024 Hong Kong Vase in a 12-1 upset, but is winless in three Group 1 races this year. His lone win this year was the minor September Stakes on the all-weather track at Kempton Park near London on Sept. 9. The race was a prep for the Arc in which Giavellotto was caught by Sosie for third in the final strides.
Al Riffa, trained by Joseph O’Brien, won the Group 1 Irish St. Leger at 1 3/4 miles in September, but was seventh by 9 1/4 lengths in a field of 24 in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup at two miles in Australia on Nov. 4.
Al Riffa was the 130-pound topweight in the Melbourne Cup. In the Hong Kong Vase, all runners carry 126 pounds.
Purton, the leading rider in Hong Kong, does not have a mount in the Hong Kong Vase, but rides expected favorite Voyage Bubble in the Hong Kong Mile.
Voyage Bubble drew post 2 in a field of 14, the largest of Sunday’s four Group 1 races. Trained in Hong Kong by Ricky Yiu, Voyage Bubble won the 2024 Hong Kong Mile, and has excelled at longer distances, winning the Group 1 Standard Charter Champions and Chater Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Sha Tin in May.
More recently, Voyage Bubble was 12th at 6-1 in the Group 2 Sha Tin Trophy at a mile on Oct. 19, but a much brighter second to Hong Kong Cup favorite Romantic Warrior in the Group 2 Jockey Club Cup at 1 1/4 miles on Nov. 23.
On the same Nov. 23 program, Galaxy Patch, seventh in the 2024 Hong Kong Mile, won the Group 2 Jockey Club Mile to end a seven-race losing streak.
Sunlight Power, Happy Together, and My Wish, second through fourth in the Jockey Club Mile, are part of the Hong Kong Mile field. The real threat to Voyage Bubble could be The Lion In Winter, who was third by 1 3/4 lengths in the BC Mile at Del Mar on Nov. 1 for trainer Aidan O’Brien of Ireland.
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