Hong Kong crowns first co-champions as Ka Ying Rising extends record streak

Hong Kong crowned co-champions for the first time on Friday at the Grand Ballroom of Rosewood Hong Kong, where Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior were both elevated to the top of the 2025/26 Champion Awards.

Ka Ying Rising, trained by David Hayes and raced by the Ka Ying Syndicate, defended his Champion Sprinter title after a season that produced five Group 1 victories and an unbeaten eight-start campaign. His winning streak reached 20 consecutive races, passing Silent Witness’s Hong Kong record of 17 straight wins, and the run included track-record performances in the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup, The Sprint Cup and the Chairman’s Sprint Prize. He then took his form abroad and became the first overseas-trained horse to win The Everest, the AU$20 million feature at Royal Randwick in Sydney, clocking 1:08.13 on October 18, 2025. By the time the Australian trip was over, his record stood at 15 wins from 17 starts, and Hong Kong’s own ratings had him at 131, the world’s top-rated sprinter.

Romantic Warrior added five Group 1 wins in the 2025/26 season, won the Hong Kong Cup and the QEII Cup for an unprecedented fourth time each, and completed the Hong Kong Triple Crown, following River Verdon in 1993/94 and Voyage Bubble in 2024/25. The gelding, who had already been Horse of the Year in 2023/24, also returned from fetlock surgery and pushed his career prizemoney to HK$288,745,697.

The awards panel that split the top honor was made up of six members, three from the Hong Kong Jockey Club and three from the Association of Hong Kong Racing Journalists. Final nominees were announced on June 25, 2026, and the club used FWD Champions Day in April to showcase the pair on a card carrying HK$78 million across three feature races.