Distance: 1200m.<\/p>\n
Conditions: A slot race, so slot owners do deals to secure a horse to race for them.<\/p>\n
\n Who: Kiwi-bred Ka Ying Rising, Cambridge Stud-owned Joliestar and
\n NZ-owned Jimmysstar headline the 12 starters.\n <\/p>\n
TAB says: Ka Ying Rising is the $1.40 favourite after drawing barrier 11.<\/p>\n
David Hayes is undeterred by Kiwi-bred champion Ka Ying Rising being tasked with creating more history after drawing barrier 11 in the A$20 million The Everest at Randwick Racecourse on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In nine previous runnings of The Everest, no horse has been successful from the second-widest gate, although Bella Nipotina won from barrier 12 in 2024 when it was an 11-runner race due to a late scratching, but Hayes is undaunted by the challenge facing the world\u2019s highest-rated horse.<\/p>\n
Ka Ying Rising won the 2025 The Everest from gate seven under Zac Purton.<\/p>\n
Hayes said the Australian system of loading horses into the barrier, where the field is split into two divisions and loaded outwards \u2013 in the case of The Everest from gates one and gate seven \u2013 means Ka Ying Rising will be among the last horses to enter the barriers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Zac will be happy because he goes in second last, with the Australian way they load. In Hong Kong, he normally goes in last and he\u2019s a bit fidgety in the gates, and that\u2019s the little thing that can go wrong,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s so fast, he can cruise across. If the tempo\u2019s too fast for him, he\u2019ll sit second or third, and if it\u2019s not fast, he\u2019ll lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be more worried about getting boxed in from [barriers] one, two or three.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he had a slow jump, I think he\u2019ll be out of trouble, and the Randwick 1200 is wonderful \u2013 you\u2019ve got a nice, long run to get across, so not chaotic like Sha Tin. Sha Tin, you\u2019ve only got 200m and he still makes it easy to get across, doesn\u2019t he?\u201d<\/p>\n
Bidding to extend his winning streak to 22, a record for a Hong Kong-trained horse, Ka Ying Rising will face 11 rivals this weekend with several of last season\u2019s opponents returning for a second tilt at Hong Kong\u2019s champion, including Tempted (second last year), Jimmysstar (third), Joliestar (fifth) and Angel Capital (sixth).<\/p>\n
Tempted drew barrier one for Saturday\u2019s contest, Jimmysstar jumps from gate eight and Angel Capital will start from barrier two, while Ninja \u2013 who shaded Ka Ying Rising in a recent 1000m barrier trial at Randwick \u2013 will begin from barrier three.<\/p>\n
Hayes was less concerned with barriers than the prospect of a heavy track as Randwick soaked under 24 millimetres of rain on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be more worried about a heavy 10 than barrier 11.<\/p>\n
\u201cLuckily that was Tuesday. If it was Friday, I\u2019d be a bit worried,\u201d Hayes said of Tuesday night\u2019s rain. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always going to be a lot of rain on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen him on wet ground. One day he won on a genuine yielding track, but his time was of a fast track, and the other races were yielding to slow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be really worried going to the races if it was heavy. If it\u2019s dead, I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll handle dead and I\u2019m pretty comfortable he\u2019ll handle slow and I really don\u2019t know on heavy. Aussie heavy is different to Hong Kong heavy.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u2014 HKJC news.<\/p>\n
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald\u2019s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world\u2019s biggest horse racing carnivals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Distance: 1200m. Conditions: A slot race, so slot owners do deals to secure a horse to race for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":630192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[806,20497,10040,18430,4527,12813,5969,111,139,69,213,1734,4998,41217,27904],"class_list":["post-630191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-as","tag-barrier","tag-camp","tag-champs","tag-doesnt","tag-everest","tag-much","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports","tag-sydney","tag-weather","tag-wide","tag-worry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/630192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}