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The $11 horse primed to beat the 'Usain Bolt' of racing in Everest
Connor Scanlon • October 8th, 2025 3:04 pm
The Group 1 $20 million Everest is less than two weeks away and talk is heating up around the runners in the race, and of course, Ka Ying Rising.
One of those contenders is Team Hawkes' Briasa who is coming off a Group 2 Premiere Stakes victory over the Everest distance of 1200m.
Wayne Hawkes compared that victory to winning an AFL preliminary final, meaning that his horse is heading into the Grand Final in amazing form.
Briasa is currently an $11 chance with most bookmakers for The Everest on October 18.
“It’s the lead-up to The Everest (the Premiere), it’s two weeks before the race and it’s the last hit out of racing for the players,” Hawkes, who co-trains with father John and brother Michael, told SEN's Whateley.
“You want to be coming into the finals in good form, don’t you.
“We got beaten first-up, but we weren’t worried about that.
“We had the prelim last Saturday and we’ve got two weeks until the Grand Final.
“My brother (Michael) was meant to come down to Melbourne yesterday and he rang me to say he’s not leaving. He said I’m staying wherever Briasa’s going, we’ve got one chance at this.
“We might not be good enough, but the bottom line is when you’ve won a preliminary final at the MCG, you’re looking pretty good for Saturday week.
“He had a nice blow and that will just take him into fine form for the Grand Final."
The Everest hosts a 12-horse field, but Hawkes believes that only half the field has a realistic chance to win the world's richest race on turf.
And if Ka Ying Rising draws barrier 1, then he might be in trouble.
“It’s not a three-horse race, there’s probably half a dozen horses that have realistic chances and the other half probably don’t,” Hawkes admitted.
“The most important thing is going to be the barriers because if Ka Ying Rising draws barrier 1, imagine the boys outside of him going, 'see how smart a-- you are now, see whether you can manoeuvre yourself out of their Harry Houdini'.
“If Ka Ying Rising wins it’s going to elevate him to the next level because he’s left his home country of Hong Kong, he’s had to acclimatise, come here and do all that – it’s not easy.
“If Briasa gets the job done then he’s going to go to the next level and be the dominant sprinter in the country.
“From our point of view, we’ve had the perfect preparation, everything has gone absolutely gang busters.
“Briasa’s in with a perfect chance."
Ka Ying Rising competed in an Everest trial on Tuesday and many racing critics labelled his third-place finish behind Linebacker and Overpass as underwhelming.
However, Hawkes was adamant that the five-year-old will improve massively off the back of that trial.
“The bottom line is this, they are still only barrier trials, it is a practice match,” Hawkes said.
“You don’t get four points for winning a practice match.
“Leigh Matthews is the GOAT, and someone said to him many years ago, what separates good from great. He said the great players are the players that step up in the finals.
“So, Ka Ying Rising’s a great horse, he’s gonna step up.
“Can he improve? He will because he’s had three-four weeks in quarantine.
“They’re mad on weighing their horses in Hong Kong, every horse has got to be weighed before the race. David Hayes (Ka Ying Rising’s trainer) said he was 20kg heavier than what he was when he raced and won (at the start of September).
“He’s probably a bit fat, he’s done super well and that’ll just trim him up nicely.”
The Hong Kong sprinter’s regular jockey, Zac Purton, who rode him in the trial, admitted on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up that the horse “needs to improve”.
However, Hawkes believes that Purton said this just to take some pressure off his back.
“The other thing is, you’re $1.50 (on multiple bookmakers), the next horse is 10/1. Maybe Zac’s thinking get off my back, get off my case a little bit. I’m probably just gonna put a bit of water on this fire, just to calm it all a little bit,” Hawkes theorised.
“Me personally, I would love to go in as the 10/1 underdog then going in as the $1.50 hotpot.
“Because there is no pressure on Briasa, everyone’s gonna be worrying about Ka Ying Rising.”
Briasa’s trainer also revealed why Ka Ying Rising is such a short-priced favourite as well.
“For the non-racing people, we are usually betting on state pools or a national pool,” Hawkes revealed.
“This is an international pool through Hong Kong and because Ka Ying Rising is the Usain Bolt of horse racing, he is the world champion sprinter, they can and are going to be betting.
“That’s why he is actually so short.”
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