Trainer David Hayes will prioritise more elite-level success with his newly minted Group One winner Ka Ying Rising over a dedicated assault on next year’s Classic Series.

The first leg of the four-year-old series, January 31’s Classic Mile, has long been on the table for Ka Ying Rising, but Hayes confirmed his stable star will be set for the Group One Centenary Sprint Cup (1,200m) 12 days earlier before a decision is made on where he’ll head after that.

“He’s a sprinter at the moment and when the Group One sprints are there, you run in them,” Hayes said of Ka Ying Rising, who was forced to dig deep to salute in Sunday’s Group One Hong Kong Sprint (1,200m) after things didn’t go all his way.

“If he doesn’t pull up well after the Centenary Sprint Cup, he won’t go for the Classic Mile.

“If he won like he did on Sunday, I wouldn’t be going for the Classic Mile, but if he won like he did in the three starts before, I would be because he pulls up so well. He eats his food and he’s very sound.

“It just looked to me when things didn’t go right yesterday that 1,200m was as far as he wanted, but I think with a 50-pound advantage in the handicap it wouldn’t be too big an ask [to step up to a mile].

“I think he’ll enjoy the tempo of a mile more because he won’t have to scrub his brains out to be in the first three.

“If he won like he did in the Group Twos earlier this season and relaxed, I wouldn’t hesitate. But if the race was in two weeks from now, I wouldn’t be running him.”

Ka Ying Rising has now won eight on the trot after his Group One breakthrough as the $1.1 favourite and the long-range plan is a tilt at October’s Group One The Everest (1,200m) in Sydney.

Races like the Group One Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup (1,400m) in February and the Group One Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1,200m) in April could also come into play for the son of Shamexpress, whether he ends up going to the Classic Mile or not.

One Hayes-trained galloper who is definitely Classic Mile-bound is Rubylot, who rebounded from a disappointing seventh to run an eye-catching second behind the impressive Packing Hermod in Sunday’s Class Two Highland Reel Handicap (1,400m).

“Rubylot’s was a good run. He was ridden more patiently and the side winkers got him focused, so he’ll definitely be going for those four-year-old races,” Hayes said.

The Australian trainer will look to expose the son of Rubick to a mile for the first time in January before the big one at the end of the month.

More immediately, Hayes takes four runners to the season’s 28th meeting at Happy Valley on Wednesday night, saddling up Sight Happy, Dragon Delight, Snowalot and Celestial Harmony.