Sha Tin will be electric during Sunday’s Group One Longines Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m) and the eyes of world racing will be tracking hot favourite Ka Ying Rising’s every move, but few will be watching as intently as those gathered at Windsor Park Stud’s Volksraad Bar in Cambridge, New Zealand.
Front and centre will be former Hong Kong rugby captain Nick Hewson, who is part of the Windsor Park Stud team getting a huge buzz out of the remarkable rise of the son of their stallion, Shamexpress.
“It’s a big thrill all through the stud. Obviously Fraser Auret bred him and he’s got a connection to the stud and the horse was born at Windsor Park, so we get a big thrill out of that,” Hewson said.
“For our foaling team to know they’ve foaled a superstar, it’s a big thrill for them. Obviously there’s a lot of good marketing we can do on the back of it as well as we have four colts to sell by Shamexpress in January.
“We’re planning a little get-together on Sunday night. We’ve got a bar at the stud called the Volksraad Bar – Volksraad was an eight-time champion stallion but he was also the damsire of Shamexpress, so it all blends in together. We’ll all be cheering Ka Ying Rising from there.”
As part of Windsor Park’s sales and marketing team, it’s been an easy watch for Hewson as Ka Ying Rising has cut a swathe through the Hong Kong sprinting ranks on his way to seven consecutive wins ahead of his first Group One assignment.
“Ka Ying Rising is definitely making my job a little bit easier. Shamexpress is an outstanding horse and he’s been a good stallion all the way through,” said Hewson, who saw Ka Ying Rising’s record-breaking Group Two Jockey Club Sprint (1,200m) win in the flesh last month while in town for his induction into the Hong Kong China Rugby Hall of Fame.
“His stats are unbelievable. He has excellent winners-to-runners statistics and a very good stakes winners-to-winners ratio. To have Ka Ying Rising up there doing what he’s doing has definitely made things a lot easier. Shamexpress has got a huge book this year on the back of it.”
Hewson’s most recent foray into thoroughbreds was the continuation of a dream developed during a childhood around horses but put largely on hold while he compiled an accomplished international rugby career for Hong Kong.
After 58 tests, three Hong Kong Sevens tournaments and a five-year stretch as captain, Hewson has been fortunate enough to transition from life as a professional sportsperson into something he’s just as passionate about.
“Racing gives me the buzz that I got when running onto the rugby field,” said Hewson, who spent 15 years in Hong Kong before heading home in 2020.
“My parents bred horses, that was sort of a hobby for them, but my drive was really to do it myself and run my own breeding programme.
“My home is Taranaki but I used to come up here to Windsor Park from when I was about 12 and do all the yearling preparations in my summer holidays to earn money.
“That was my connection. My family are obviously into racing but I had a big drive to be on a stud farm.
“[Windsor Park owner] Rodney [Schick] came up for the Hong Kong International Races the year before I came back and we made a plan about me coming back and getting back into the sales and marketing side of it. It’s been great.”
It was Valley RFC who initially enticed Hewson to Hong Kong and the connections he built during a career featuring 10 premierships were front of mind when the 40-year-old returned home to New Zealand.
“When I first came back, the first horse I syndicated was a horse called Mustang Valley. She’s a dual Group One winner and all the part-owners were Valley rugby club members,” said Hewson, who also co-bred and co-owned another Group One winner, Lickety Split.
Those gallopers might not sit alongside champions like So You Think, Might And Power and two-time Hong Kong Sprint winner Aerovelocity – “they’re the three pin-up horses to come off our farm” – but Ka Ying Rising just might one day.
“It’s bloody exciting,” said Hewson. “Gee I hope he goes well. It’ll be a big party if he does.”
