For the first time in the history two star gallopers were crowned co-Hong Kong Champions at a special presentation held at the Grand Ballroom of the Rosewood Hotel in Hong Kong on Friday night.
Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior are now both two-time Hong Kong Champions, as Ka Ying Rising was crowned 2024/25 Horse of the Year and Romantic Warrior was named Horse of the Year in the 2023/24 season.
Owned by Ka Ying Syndicate and trained by David Hayes, Ka Ying Rising also returned back-to-back Champion Sprinter titles after scoring five Group One race wins this season.
The full list of awards winners is below:
Australiian bred Hellbent gelding Invincible Ibis was honoured with two awards.
Trained by Mark Newnham, Invincible Ibis was named this season’s Champion Four-Year-Old. He snared the HK$26 million BMW Hong Kong Derby (2000m) with a convincing victory. In his subsequent start he also ran a creditable fourth in the G1 Champions Mile (1600m), his first time of asking in the Group one event. In addition, he was also named the season’s Most Improved Horse after scoring 57 points to a career-high rating of 112 with five wins from nine starts in the season.
Another Aussie bred gelding by Too Darn Hot (GB), Hot Delight was rewarded for a brilliant first season when the three year-old won four of five starts, all at 1200m.
The Francis Lui-trained Hot Delight was named Champion Griffin of Hong Kong. Achieving a career highlight with victory in Class 2, he shot up 37 rating points and now sits on a career-high figure of 89.
