Ka Ying Rising pulls up well from Everest defeat and heads home to Sha Tin

Ka Ying Rising has pulled up well from his half-neck defeat in The Everest. He was due to leave Sydney on Monday to resume his Hong Kong campaign.

Tempted, ridden by Chad Schofield, ended the gelding’s run of 21 consecutive wins, a Hong Kong record, at Randwick on Saturday. Ka Ying Rising covered ground on a yielding track and went down by half a neck.

“He seemed to race in patches on Saturday, but he was very brave, and I think he would have won in a few more strides,” trainer David Hayes told The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

The world’s top-rated horse will spend two weeks in quarantine at Sha Tin. In the first week he will do some trotting and cantering in the dressage ring. He will return to the track in the second week before going back to Hayes’ stables.

His next start is the HK$5.35 million Group 2 BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint over 1200 metres at Sha Tin on November 22. He will then chase a third win in the HK$28 million Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint on December 13.

Hayes said that race and the HK$24 million Group 1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize on April 25 remain the gelding’s main objectives.

“It’s only early in the season. He’s got a big season ahead,” Hayes said. “It was tough seeing him lose in the way he did, but he’ll bounce back.”