It’s hard to imagine the world’s best racehorse rising to a new level after a Hong Kong record 20 consecutive wins, but Ka Ying Rising proved he has elevated his game again with a jaw-dropping victory on Sunday.
In arguably one of the greatest performances on the Sha Tin turf, the superstar sprinter launched his latest campaign in a blaze of glory, shattering his own track record by almost a second in his Group Three HKSAR Chief Executive’s Cup romp.
With all eyes firmly on the clock, as has been the case through the latter part of his dominant winning streak, most could not believe his time of 1:06.11 – about five lengths better than the previous record of 1:07.10 he set in the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize in April.
That winning time is in rare air worldwide. Disco Partner won in an extraordinary 1:05.67 at Belmont racecourse in America in 2017, T M Spada won in 1:05.80 at Japan’s Kokura track in 2022 and First Force clocked 1:06.00 at the same track in 2021.
It is a difficult task weighing up times on different tracks – they all have different configurations, conditions on the day and even timing methods. The American and Japanese times that were quicker than Ka Ying Rising’s were timed by running starts.
