THE world’s best racehorse, Hong Kong’s Ka Ying Rising, returned to action with a blistering win in the Group 3 HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup Handicap over six furlongs last Sunday.
David Hayes’ sprinter shattered Sha Tin’s six-furlong track record for the fifth time before entering quarantine in preparation for a defence of the Group 1 The Everest in Sydney, Australia next month.
Clocking a blistering 1m 06.11s to better his own record by almost a second, Ka Ying Rising stretched his winning streak to a Hong Kong record 21 in a row, as Hayes described the victory as one of the six-year-old’s finest.
“He spent five or six hours under veterinary attention on Tuesday to have the bruising in his hind leg checked out,” Hayes said. “He was having CT scans and Doppler scans under sedation. That would throw most horses off their routine, but he just takes everything in his stride.
“He’s 29lb heavier than last season’s track record time and probably nine above his best winning weight, so he’s got bigger, stronger and better.”
Conceding most of his rivals 20lb, Ka Ying Rising forged to the lead and ran 23.27s for the first two furlongs, a 21.15s between the 800m and 400m before closing off the final two furlongs in 21.69s to beat Copartner Prance by seven and three-quarter lengths. Purton agreed: “I’m not going to stand there and say he’s going to improve lengths off that - and I said before, he doesn’t need to - but I’m sure he’s going to pull up better for the run.
“When I pulled up, I was interested to see what time he ran because the track was very fast during the barrier trials here last week; it’s firm out there today, and they ran good time in the first race.”
Ka Ying Rising’s Timeform rating has been left unchanged on 137 following his victory. Timeform’s Senior Racing Analyst Mark Milligan said: “We make our own going assessments at Timeform based on race times and, with the ground clearly much faster than the official ‘good’, we called it ‘firm’ on the day.
“So, despite that track-record time, his time figure of 134 (from our colleagues at Racing and Sports in Australia) makes it difficult to go beyond his current 137, though given the right circumstances and the correct horses to push him there, he gives the impression a rating of 140 is well within his reach, which would be rarified air indeed.”
Grosser Preis von Baden (Group 1)
THE Roger Varian-trained Saddadd fulfilled the promise of his early season form, when the four-year-old son of Pinatubo battled on well under Jack Mitchell to win the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden at Baden-Baden last Sunday.
Jack Mitchell secured his breakthrough win at the highest level, when Saddadd denied Parachutiste and the globetrotting favourite Giavellotto in the mile-and-a-half Group 1.
The Roger Varian-trained four-year-old, who won the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes in good style at Sandown in April, was then third in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and only fourth in the Coral-Eclipse before lining up in Germany.
Saddadd was made to battle hard all the way to the line by Parachutiste, trained by Francis Graffard but held him off by half a length.
Giavellotto was sent off a short-priced favourite for Marco Botti, having beaten subsequent King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Kalpana in the Hardwicke Stakes on his last outing, but he faded into fourth place.
It was a first Group 1 victory of the season for Varian, who was quoted afterwards: “Giavellotto and the second are very good horses, so I think the form is true. There was no fluke about it and the best horse won today.
“He was third in a hot Tattersalls Gold Cup and then wasn’t quite at his best in the Eclipse, but he’s been shaping all year like a very good horse, so for me it’s not a surprise he’s won. I’m delighted for the team and Jack, who has been with me a long time.”
The winning rider said: “I was drawn wide and could have gone forward a bit more, but the pace was okay. I kept my eye on Giavellotto and followed him through when he made his move to the outside.
“His stamina has shown up well today,” Mitchell added.