2025 Hong Kong Sprint: Trends, storylines, and Ka Ying Rising

The world’s best sprinter, Ka Ying Rising, has gone from strength to strength since notching his first Group 1 in the 2024 Hong Kong Sprint (G1). This year’s $3.6 million renewal is about far more than a mere title defense; history is on the line as he seeks to extend his winning streak to 16.

First, we’ll update the trends section before delving anew into Ka Ying Rising and his primary challengers.

Hong Kong Sprint trends

Hong Kong sprinters are exceptionally tough to beat on their home turf at Sha Tin. In the 26-year history of this race, just six times has an international shipper prevailed. Two of those successful raids came in its early years as an about five-furlong dash down the straightaway, when Falvelon (2000-01) scored for Australia.

The Sprint was lengthened to about six furlongs around the right-handed turn in 2006. Since the victory of South Africa’s J J the Jet Plane (2010), only Japan has found a way to overcome the locals. Lord Kanaloa (2012-13) reigned supreme twice, and his son Danon Smash (2020) furthered his legacy.

Thus no European or American-based runner has managed to win the Hong Kong Sprint. No three-year-olds or females have won either.

Trainers Tony Cruz and Ricky Yiu have each sent out three winners. Cruz, who will forever be associated with the great Silent Witness (2003-04), added a third trophy with Peniaphobia (2015). Yiu trained a couple of legends himself in Fairy King Prawn (1999) and Sacred Kingdom (2007, 2009). 

In the 19 runnings at its current distance, only six winners went off as the favorite. Four sprang double-digit upsets. 

While 13 of the 19 were exiting the local prep, the Jockey Club Sprint (G2), only four turned the double, including Ka Ying Rising a year ago. 

The next most productive stepping stone is Japan’s Sprinters (G1). Aside from Lord Kanaloa’s back-to-back scores at home, Danon Smash was runner-up in the Sprinters, and Hong Kong-based Lucky Nine (2011) was a tough-trip fifth in his excursion to Nakayama.

Only four of 19 winners were coming off unplaced efforts; 15 recorded a top-three finish in their prior start. 

Nine of the 19 winners were drawn around the middle, and six broke toward the outside. Posts 1-4 have delivered just one winner apiece. 

Storylines for the Hong Kong Sprint

Ka Ying Rising towers over the field but draws the rail

Invincible for the past 15 races dating back to February 2024, Ka Ying Rising is on the verge of equaling the great Golden Sixty’s 16 wins in a row. Then he’d be only one win away from tying the legendary sprinter Silent Witness, who holds the Hong Kong record of a 17-race winning spree.

Yet that bare stat doesn’t reflect the Ka Ying Rising phenomenon in its totality. Under the masterful tutelage of David Hayes, the New Zealand-bred has often made it look ridiculously easy. Or in the true hallmark of a champion, he finds a way to impose his authority even if not at his supersonic best. 

Ka Ying Rising may have improved since his foray to Australia, where he plundered the lucrative Everest (G1). In his recent homecoming in the Jockey Club Sprint, he nearly broke his own Sha Tin course record while coasting to a repeat victory.

On paper, it’s a formality for Ka Ying Rising to become the fifth back-to-back winner of the Hong Kong Sprint, and the first since Mr Stunning (2017-18). 

Drawing the rail might be the one potential complication. It’s not just that only one Sprint winner has emerged from post 1 (Sky Field in 2021). Ka Ying Rising has never broken from the rail. Early in his career, he drew post 2 twice. Both times he was involved in photo finishes, losing one brutal bob and winning the other.

Obviously, Ka Ying Rising is a different animal now, with massive gears that give Zac Purton options to work out a trip and extricate themselves from any difficulty. Still, bad luck or trouble in running is a theoretical possibility, especially if he’s off a beat slow. 

Lord Kanaloa’s son Satono Reve tries again

Third here a year ago, and second-best in his return visit for the April 27 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (G1), Satono Reve hopes that the third time against Ka Ying Rising is the charm. 

Trained by Noriyuki Hori, whose six Group 1 wins at Sha Tin include a trio of HKIR events, Satono Reve is further along the developmental curve than he was last December. He captured the Takamatsunomiya Kinen (G1) to assert himself as Japan’s leading sprinter, and in his venture to Royal Ascot, he came close to victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee (G1). In his only ensuing start back home, Satono Reve was fourth in the Sprinters to Win Carnelian, a creditable effort considering the layoff and that the two leaders had the race to themselves. 

Satono Reve will get every chance with ace rider Ryan Moore taking over. Moore just won the International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley on Wednesday, to underscore that he’s returned from injury in top form. 

If Satono Reve can pull off a mighty upset, the son of Lord Kanaloa would make more history for his sire. Lord Kanaloa would become the only stallion responsible for two different winners of the Hong Kong Sprint.

Helios Express on a similar pattern for Size

Last year’s runner-up, Helios Express, is building toward another big effort for 13-time champion trainer John Size. Around this time in 2024, he was just reinventing himself as a sprinter after probing the limits of his stamina in Hong Kong’s Four-Year-Old Series. It was proof of his natural talent and willing attitude that he won two-thirds of that series going further than he ideally wants to go. 

Helios Express had two course-and-distance preps in advance of the 2024 Sprint, and he used the same warm-ups this fall. He closed for fifth in his comeback in the Oct. 26 Premier Bowl H. (G2), where he was conceding loads of weight as the 135-pound highweight. Facing Ka Ying Rising next in the Jockey Club Sprint, Helios Express worked his way into third despite a spot of trouble. 

In the trifecta in 12 of 13 starts at about six furlongs, Helios Express promises to be involved in the minor awards again. The question is whether he can retain the silver medal. When he last met Satono Reve in the Chairman’s Sprint Prize, Helios Express was third, just missing second by a neck. 

Does 2023 champ Lucky Sweynesse still have a big one in him?

Lucky Sweynesse, the unlucky beaten favorite in 2022, gained compensation by winning the 2023 Sprint. Unfortunately, he sustained an injury in the spring of 2024 and did not resurface for a year. 

His 2025 campaign has been all about the comeback trail. Although he’s yet to win from five starts, Lucky Sweynesse has kept finishing well enough to warrant persevering. His only poor effort was a non-threatening 11th behind Win Carnelian in his visit to Japan for the Sprinters. 

The Manfred Man trainee has otherwise been chasing Ka Ying Rising and Helios Express, and he was only a head away from the latter when fourth in the Jockey Club Sprint. Just a modicum of improvement puts Lucky Sweynesse right in the frame.

Khaadem carries British hopes and Breeders’ Cup form

The historical trends are all against Khaadem, who is trying for a transatlantic breakthrough in this spot. Based with Charlie Hills in Great Britain, the well-traveled veteran also represents U.S. form as the winner of Keeneland’s Woodford (G2) and third-placer in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1). 

That profile hasn’t fit this race. But the idiosyncratic nine-year-old doesn’t care much for stats, as his highly improbable victories in the 2023 and 2024 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee attest. Khaadem will get pace to set up his late kick for Oisin Murphy, back aboard for the first time since engineering his Jubilee title defense.