It wasn’t quite the electrifying performance many expected, but it was a case of job done for boom sprinter Ka Ying Rising with a workmanlike victory in Sunday’s Group One Longines Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m).

By saluting as the equal shortest-priced favourite in Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) history – Romantic Warrior matched him at $1.1 three races later – the emerging star widely rated the world’s best sprinter continued his phenomenal rise with an eighth straight win on his first start at the elite level.

However, the race didn’t go to completely to script as Ka Ying Rising started slowly and was eyeballed by Victor The Winner throughout running.

After taking the lead under Zac Purton at the 300m, the David Hayes-trained gelding skipped clear and did enough late to hold off the fast-finishing Helios Express by half a length.

It was by far the shortest winning margin in his current streak, which included multiple dominant victories and a track record success when eased down late by Purton.

“I think people sort of underestimate the nuances of the way races can be run,” Purton said after Ka Ying Rising won in 1:08.15.

“Victor The Winner sitting up a head in front of me the whole race just didn’t allow my horse to relax or settle. He became fired up and he was using up a lot of energy through the whole running of the race and that’s obviously told in his performance.

“But a normal horse can’t absorb that and still perform at that level, so I think there’s a lot more credit to his performance.”

Ka Ying Rising became the first horse to win the Sprint from gate 11 since the race became a 1,200m contest in 2006, with Purton riding the son of Shamexpress along after his slow start to sit on top of the speed along with pacesetter California Spangle and Victor The Winner.

Japanese sprinter Satono Reve closed off well late to finish third, beaten three-quarters of a length, while multiple Group One victor California Spangle held fourth.

Hayes, who also won the Sprint with All Thrills Too in 2002, was relieved after Ka Ying Rising delivered the Australian Hall of Fame trainer his 98th career Group One success.

“He showed today he never relaxed at all, that’s the first time he hasn’t relaxed,” Hayes said.

“As he was going to relax, Victor [The Winner] came up to him and really eyeballed him. So I think when he relaxes, we all know he’s more explosive. That was probably the least exciting to the eye, but I know that was a great win because he did pull.

“A $1.1 is not much fun to saddle up, I can tell you. You’re never confident going into international Group Ones because there’s so many unknowns, but I was as confident as you could be. Probably not as confident as the market, but in market-terms I thought $1.8, not $1.1.”

Hayes reserved special praise for his stable staff, while indicating Ka Ying Rising would progress to the Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1,200m) on January 19.

Another potential aim, the Classic Mile for four-year-olds, is only 12 days later.

“I really want to give special thanks to my team, because having a horse in the headlines like this, it’s very important nothing goes wrong,” Hayes said.

“My team, particularly my team up in Conghua, have just done an incredible job and nothing has gone wrong in the build up to this.

“We’ll see how he pulls up, but the initial one will be the Group One sprint in late January, six weeks between runs and then after that, we’ll make a decision whether we go to the Mile or not.”

Hayes has a big 2025 planned for Ka Ying Rising, with the A$20 million The Everest (1,200m) in October one of his prime aims.

Purton added the Sprint success to his previous triumphs on Aerovelocity (2014 and 2016) and Lucky Sweynesse (2023).

Hugh Bowman was thrilled with Helios Express’ run. “He ran up to expectations. I was delighted with him,” he said.

Satono Reve’s jockey Joao Moreira said: “He went fantastic. He got beaten by just two good, local horses. He hit the line very strongly, just wasn’t good enough to beat them but I was very happy with the run.”