Fraser Auret has made a special journey this week in order to see Ka Ying Rising for the first time since he left his former home in rural New Zealand.
The world's best sprinter, his reputation now sky-high after claiming The Everest (G1) at Randwick Racecourse in October, was bred by Auret and his wife Erin, who have a training center near Marton in the country's North Island and operate as Grandmoral Lodge Racing.
Auret took an unfurnished Ka Ying Rising to a jumpout at nearby Levin, where he caught the eye of agent Mike Morais, who bought him on behalf of the Hayes family's Lindsay Park operation. After landing a trial at Moe in Australia in the middle of 2023, Ka Ying Rising was switched to David Hayes' Hong Kong stable.
Should he win the Dec. 14 Hong Kong Sprint (G1) for the second consecutive year, he will take his unbeaten streak to 16. It will also see him join local legend Golden Sixty's mark and stand one shy of the jurisdiction record of 17 straight wins set by Silent Witness.
"We've come on our own back," Auret said. "We'd always planned to come and see him at some stage before, but we run quite a busy stable, so it was about working out logistics for when we could get away.
"We decided it was either head to Australia for The Everest or come here. We'd never been to Hong Kong before and we thought it would be fantastic to come and see him here."
The cheerful Auret hails from a breeding dynasty, as his parents Nigel and Adaire run Letham Stud in Wanganui, but producing Ka Ying Rising from the useful Per Incanto mare Missy Moo came about by chance.
"It's remarkable to think he's the first horse we ever bred, so he's very special from that perspective," he said. "We certainly didn't set out to breed what we ended up breeding, but he was such a beautiful horse all the way through. We've had so much joy and fun watching him race through the years. We've got three children who all love him to bits, so every time he races there's always a bit of a gathering at home.
"Missy Moo was a mare we trained, she won five races, but her owner didn't want to breed, and it was just an opportunistic chance. My mother and father bred for about 30 years, so it was something that was always on the cards at some stage, and that opportunity presented itself."
Although Auret has been quoted in the past as saying he was reasonably well paid for Ka Ying Rising, the sad thing is that there are no more of them waiting in the wings.
"The mare had only the two foals," Auret said. "The other one, his younger half brother Ka Ying Glory, is also here. He's racing on Sunday too, but he needs to talk to his older brother about how to run because he hasn't quite worked that part out yet!
"We sadly lost the mare and we wanted to get some connection to the family so we went looking for a sister or a relative, but, would you believe, the mother had about nine brothers and no sisters. So unfortunately it's the end of the line."
Auret has been invited by Hayes to go and see Ka Ying Rising at his stables at Sha Tin. The 5-year-old, who has already banked just under $13 million, is by a group 1-winning sprinter in Windsor Park's Shamexpress and his breeder is a little surprised, as well as delighted, as to how it has all turned out.
"It's just been wonderful watching him develop," he said. "The mare was more of a mile-and-a-quarter horse. She wasn't a sprinter, but she was a good-quality horse.
"He's certainly furnished an awful amount more. He wasn't really a sprinter-looking type, he was a bit weak and big and gangly, but you could see even on the TV that each season he was that little bit bigger and stronger, and now to the point where he's a fully mature horse."
Auret has a string of around 50 and will be attempting to keep an eye on runners back home during this week. The quest for the next Ka Ying Rising begins in earnest and the operation is feeling the benefit in different ways.
"Selling horses has always been a very big part of our model," he said. "With racing in New Zealand, it's almost like a part of the culture that you need to sell horses to survive. Even through selling him, we've made some wonderful contacts.
"Unfortunately, he's now got us a bit roped in and we've got about six mares now, having started with just the one.
"I'll probably spend the next 30 years trying to breed another one and not be able to! But it's beautiful watching them grow and develop as foals; we've really enjoyed it."
