Ka Ying Rising Crowned Hong Kong HOTY

Few horses have dominated a season quite like Ka Ying Rising did in 2024/25. At Friday’s awards ceremony at the Rosewood Hotel in Hong Kong, the unbeaten gelding added Horse of the Year to an already glittering résumé that includes Champion Sprinter and Champion Four-Year-Old. It capped an extraordinary campaign from the Shamexpress gelding, whose rise from promising prospect to world-beater was as explosive as it was unrelenting. Trained by David Hayes for the Ka Ying Syndicate, Ka Ying Rising went eight-from-eight this term to extend his unblemished career to 12 straight wins. His season featured a devastating performance in the HK$26 million G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint (1200m) and a powerful display in the HK$22 million G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m), which completed his clean sweep of the Hong Kong Speed Series and secured a HK$5 million bonus. In doing so, he matched the achievements of past greats like Mr Vitality, Grand Delight, Silent Witness and Lucky Sweynesse. The gelding also twice broke the 1200m track record at Sha Tin – first with a time of 1:07.43 in the G2 BOCHK Private Banking Jockey Club Sprint and then lowering it to 1:07.2 in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup. Rated 126, he now ranks as the world’s top sprinter and shares fourth on the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, trailing only Field Of Gold, Forever Young and Ombudsman. Voyage Bubble, trained by Ricky Yiu, also left an indelible mark, becoming just the second horse after River Verdon to claim Hong Kong’s coveted Triple Crown – winning the Gr1 Stewards’ Cup (1600m), Gr1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup (2000m) and Gr1 Standard Chartered Champions & Chater Cup (2400m), netting a HK$10 million bonus. His season haul included five wins from seven starts, among them four Group 1s, including the HK$36 million Gr1 Longines Hong Kong Mile. He added the Gr2 BOCHK Private Wealth Jockey Club Mile and was rightfully named both Champion Miler and Champion Stayer. Meanwhile, Romantic Warrior collected his fourth consecutive Champion Middle-Distance Horse title. The globetrotting Danny Shum-trained gelding again flew the Hong Kong flag with distinction, capturing the Gr1 Longines Hong Kong Cup, Gr1 Jebel Hatta and Gr2 BOCHK Jockey Club Cup, while also finishing runner-up in both the Gr1 Saudi Cup and Gr1 Dubai Turf. The seven-year-old son of Acclamation clocked a dazzling 1:45.10 to dominate the Jebel Hatta and became the first Hong Kong-trained horse to win Group 1s across four different jurisdictions – Hong Kong, Japan, Australia and Dubai – pushing his record-breaking earnings to HK$214.7 million.