Who’s afraid of Ka Ying Rising?
Several pundits have already tried to pick possible holes in the Hong Kong champions suggested right of passage to a victory in the 2025, $20 million The Everest and, while there is no certainty in racing, the ultra-restrictive odds about the chances of the David Hayes trained superstar does tell a story, as does two simple comments from the astute Hayes, namely that he considers Ka Ying Rising to be ‘probably the best horse’ he has trained and that the horse is ‘better than last year.’
That’s pretty scary in itself.
Thirteen wins in a row, dating back to February 2024 … including four Group 1 wins … shows that Ka Ying Rising has carried all before him for some time now and, digging deeper, the merit of his achievement looks even better given that he has won most of his races with complete authority, beating some very well performed horses … even showing a touch of arrogance, which is often a trait of a special racehorse.
In theory then, there is plenty for his opposition to ‘fear’ from Ka Ying Rising, but the temptation of the $7 million first prize … which roughly translates to $100 000 a second to be earned by the winner … will mean that eleven other sets of connections will take their chances against Ka Yong Rising and won’t die wondering.
Having said that, the majority of slot holders for The Everest have yet to lock in their runners with only four-and-a-half weeks to go before the gates fly open at Randwick and twelve runners will be underway, contesting a race which will be teeming with a level of concentrated pressure that will test the resolve of every horse and jockey over every stride of the seventy odds seconds the race takes to complete.
And therein lies the rub.
Taking on Ka Ying Rising is one thing. Beating him is possible … but, if Ka Ying Rising is at his best, at what cost will that be if a horse overextends itself trying to gain the upper hand … or, worse still, gets well beaten and has its heart broken.
That’s all hypothetical, of course, but the intensity of the up-coming battle has to be a factor in any potential connections consideration of whether to take up a slot or not.
Who’s to know if that is the reason why seven slots have still to be filled at this fairly late stage of proceedings … or not.
Only four-and-a-half weeks to go to this year’s edition of The Everest … that is both a short time-frame (it will pass very quickly) and a long time (in that there is still plenty of water to go under the bridge until race-day).
There is still much to unfold … including with Ka Ying Rising himself and his lead-up story … so The Everest landscape can change in the blink of an eye.
Simply nothing is guaranteed.
As more runners are confirmed, the conversation on both sides will have more ammunition but, for now though, Ka Ying Rising is justifiably very much the focal point of the buildup to The Everest.
Star horses do make their potential opponents blink and maybe think twice about taking them on.
The two superstars of the Australian turf did that.
Black Caviar raced against eight opponents or less in fifteen of her last twenty starts … including a mere three opponents in the Schweppes Stakes which she won in a canter by six lengths.
Winx raced against eight opponents or less in fourteen of her last twenty starts … including only seven opponents in both of her last two Cox Plate wins.
Ka Ying Rising will basically face a mandatory eleven opponents in the twelve-slot race. We’ll only have an idea of who he might have chased away … if any … once the makeup of the field is finalised.
Whatever side of the argument you are on, it is fair to say that it is a real a coup for Australian racing to have Ka Ying Rising bring an impressive international presence to the race which takes it to another level.
