Zac Purton is confident Ka Ying Rising has the speed and versatility to overcome barrier 11 in the AU$20 million (approx. HK$109.5 million) G1 The Everest (1200m) at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, Australia on Saturday (17 October).
Chasing his second consecutive victory in the world’s richest turf race after steering Ka Ying Rising to a facile success in last season’s running, Purton is less concerned by gate 11 than the prospect of a slow to heavy track.
The nine-time Hong Kong Champion Jockey agrees with the speed map consensus that has Bjorn Baker’s speedy three-year-old filly Blue Door leading from barrier nine, a scenario which would potentially allow Ka Ying Rising to angle towards the rail from the start and settle in a prominent situation.
“I don’t think the barrier is too bad. The leader of the race (Blue Door) is drawn just inside us, so hopefully we can just slide across with her and the way the weather is, the inside of the track might not be the place to be. It might end up helping us,” Purton said.
Baker confirmed Blue Door will be ridden for speed.
“We won’t change anything with her. She’s a very fast filly so we’ll play to our strengths,” Baker said.
Ka Ying Rising will attempt to win a 22nd consecutive race, a record for a Hong Kong horse, and Purton will not finalise tactics with trainer David Hayes until he inspects the Randwick track on Saturday.
“We’ll just work it out on the day. We’ll see how the track is first, and hopefully they’ve had the worst of it (wet weather) and the track is going to dry out. On a dry track, we know what he can do; on a wet track, we don’t (know), so I would prefer a dry track if we can get that.
“The barrier is okay – the track is more the important part.”
After being downgraded from a Good 4 to a Heavy 8 following 66mm of rain on Tuesday (13 October), the Randwick track had improved to Soft 7 today (Thursday, 15 October) with the chance of further upgrades as fine weather is forecast over the next three days.
Ka Ying Rising exercised smoothly at Canterbury Racecourse this morning, pleasing Hayes.
“It was very smooth and he’ll have another canter tomorrow,” Hayes said. “I’m very happy with him.”
Giga Kick, who won The Everest in 2022 and finished second in the race in 2024, will start from barrier 12 under Dylan Gibbons as the veteran attempts to add to his strong record at Randwick, where he has two wins and four minor placings from 10 starts.
“He’s got a pretty good record in the race so we’ll see what happens,” trainer Clayton Douglas said.
“It’s not going to be easy to beat Ka Ying (Rising), but in comparison to the rest I definitely think he’s right up to it.”
The Everest will be run at 1.15pm Hong Kong time.