Matt Chapman , Sun Racing Columnist and Tipster
Published: 12:07, 29 Jun 2026
ON the one hand Ka Ying Rising at Royal Ascot would be fantastic.
Most racing people across the globe accept it’s the meeting where the best of the best take each other on at the most unique, glamorous and prestigious of race meetings.
On the other hand, the Ka Ying Rising Syndicate appear to be exactly the kind of people most racing fans can detest with ease.
Not so much Sad, Mad and Bad, the words once used for Celtic Swing’s absence from the Derby, but more Sad, Sad and Sad.
Offensive even.
For some reason those closest to the Hong Kong superstar have decided to attack the Royal meeting’s prize money.
Michael Marais of Oz Bloodstock, who bought Ka Ying Rising and works with the gelding’s trainer David Hayes, said: “Having had discussions with David, I can categorically tell you that the horse will not come to Ascot. That is 100 per cent, it’s not even up for debate.
“The Ka Ying Syndicate had a meeting and they weighed up the prize-money, the £10million cheque he gets in the Everest against what he would get by winning the feature 1,200m race at Ascot and they made a decision it will not be happening.”
The Golden Jubilee II is worth £1m and the prize money, apparently, is a key issue for a gelding who has won his last 20 races in a row.
“His average earnings in Hong Kong are HK$6.2m per race,” Marais said.
“David said he’d done the sums and for what he’d be paying to come to Ascot, he’d get HK$5m, never mind HK$54m for winning the Everest (in Australia).”
This all sounds reasonable at first hand. But hold on, is this syndicate on the breadline?
It’s very hard to find out exact details of the Ka Ying Rising Syndicate, but we do know one thing, its representative and driving force is Hong Kong businessman Leung Shek-kong.
The latter is a billionaire. More cash than you or I could ever imagine.
Now it might be the rest of the syndicate is scratching around to pay training fees, but I somehow doubt it.
To be honest the Ka Ying Rising syndicate’s behaviour and attitude just makes me massively depressed.
How much money does one person need?
And to have a billionaire with so little desire to conquer the world is, to be quite frank, pathetic.
It made me think how important owners are to our love of horses.
It’s often a game for very rich people.
But you can still really like them.
Rich Ricci would be a prime example. He’s a friend of the fans, even though you might not agree with every running plan.
You know he cares and loves the game.
Emma Banks doesn’t own countries, but the music mogul has a few quid.
Yet we can all marvel in Lady Bowthorpe and now Spicy Marg.
I guess it’s just like anything in life… decency and a little decorum with a dash of joie de vivre is always welcomed and relished.
Ka Ying Rising might be the greatest sprinter of all time.
His owners, however, lack any of all his dash and joy.
a Ying Rising could go down as the greatest sprinter ever – so it’s a crying shame we’ll never see him at Royal Ascot simply because the prize money isn’t big enough
