Romantic Warrior v Ka Ying Rising

With the big day of racing that took place on the weekend at Sha Tin on the 25th of January 2026. You might be asking yourself who is likely to win if the two greats Ka Ying Rising and Romantic Warrior went head-to-head. Let’s try and think about this in more detail.. We can start by picking out 6 of the stronger horses from each of their races on the weekend.

Theoretical Race if they were to run against each other.

This is how we might compare them using the JR Upcoming Ratings sheet. You can see that each of them would be coming out on top in different categories.

Ka Ying Rising would be on top with:

• JR rating of $2.3.

• Finish Time 2 of -10.0 lengths.

• Speed Map position 1 with Zac Purton

Romantic Warrior would be on top with:

• Finish Time 2 of -15.0 lengths.

• Last 400m Time 2 of -8.8 lengths.

• Last 400m Time 3 of -13.1 lengths.

The rest of the field:

• Finish Time 3 of -13.3 lengths to Galaxy Patch.

• Last 400m Time 1 of -7.9 lengths to Helios Express

Each of the horses seem to have their strengths. For me it would come down to what distance they would race at. Ka Ying Rising has raced 19 of it’s 20 starts at the 1200m. With one run at the 1400m for a 1.5L win. Romantic Warrior on the other hand has won at distances ranging between 1200m and 2040m. I’m thinking Ka Ying Rising would win dominantly up to around 1500m. Then the longer the race goes the more it seems likely that Romantic Warriors superior times and sectionals. With a race at 1600m+ likely resulting in a dominant victory to Romantic Warrior.

For me I’d like to see them race at the 1500m. Maybe someone will put up some big prize money in the future to make this happen. But I feel this matchup will only happen in an alternate reality. As far as the exotics go I’d like Helios and Galaxy Patch in the mix.